The government recently announced the Green Homes Grant of £5,000 and £10,000 for home owners to use to improve the energy efficencly of their homes, only available until April 2021. The £10,000 grant is for low income households and £5,000 for households which do not qualify as low income (e.g. not in receipt of any benefits)
In terms of renewable energy products that EnergyMyWay install the grant is only applicable for a heat pump (either air source or ground source) solar thermal & biomass boiler installations. It is not applicable for Solar PV or battery storage installations.
For heat pumps, solar thermal and biomass there is already a government subsidy scheme called the Renewable Heat Incentive for these installations. The RHI has been available since April 2014 and is still available. The grant is not as well as the RHI but instead of.
Typically the RHI subsidy for an ASHP/GSHP would be between £7,000 and £10,000 paid over 7 years. The way the grant would work is that if you were due to get RHI payments of £7,000 over 7 years under the RHI scheme, you would apply for the grant of £5,000 and this would be deducted off your RHI payments (RHI of £7,000 – £5,000 grant = £2,000). You would then get the remaining £2,000 paid over the 7 years of the RHI scheme.
So in short the Green Homes Grant is a forward payment of Renewable Heat Incentive payments which have been available since April 2014. The cynical amongst you may think the annoucement of the Green Homes Grant is just annoucing money which has already been pledged and rebadging it!
The mechanism of how the scheme will be administered or policed have not been finalised. Our concern is that some organisations will use the short term availability of the grant as a sales tactic and will end installing products which are not suitable for the property.
Please be aware that the availability of a government grant or RHI should not unduly influence your decision to install a renewable energy product and that a proper assesment of your property should be carried out to make sure the product is suitable.
If you would like to find out more about the Green Homes Grant and if your property is suitable for a renewable heating product then please contact us.
