With the winter months fast approaching, energy consumers already struggling to meet the demands of rising gas and electricity costs are facing more worry when it comes to ensuring they stay warm and healthy this winter.

But for the most vulnerable members of society – the elderly and low income households – there is help at hand , thanks to a variety of schemes and incentives. One of which is the Government’s Warm Front Scheme.

Whether you’re in need of a new boiler to replace your old energy inefficient model, or would like to install loft insulation or cavity wall insulation, but cannot afford the up-front costs involved, the Warm Front Scheme can provide grants to householders who reside in poorly insulated or badly heated homes. If you’re eligible to benefit from the scheme you can apply for a grant of up to £3,500 or up to £6,000 if your property is not main gas connected.

“With the coldest months of the year fast approaching, there’s never been a better time for people on low incomes to pick up the phone and apply for a Warm Front grant,” advises Energy and Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker.

This year the Government has made more than £110 million available in funding, and another £100 million has already been allocated for 2012/13.

It’s estimated that around 90,000 people will take advantage of the Warm Front grant scheme over the next two years.

For more about the scheme, visit www.direct.gov.uk

Come March, the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme will be underspent by a whopping £4.5 million, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

As if those figures don’t make for gloomy enough reading, statistics released recently by DECC make it appear unlikely that anything remaining in the budget will be rolled over into the second phase of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).

The RHPP was introduced as the first phase of the renewable heating incentive, as a means of encouraging homeowners to switch to renewable heating technology.

Launched in July, the scheme was set to spark a new era in home heating, with the Government making up to 25,000 renewable heating installations eligible for a one-off payment, which would help fund the upfront cost of a green heating system. Under the grants, homeowners can install biomass boilers, heat pumps and solar water heating

The Government has made £15 million available, however in order to benefit from the scheme, applicants will be required to demonstrate that their homes have the minimum levels of energy efficiency. They will also need to monitor the renewable energy system and provide feedback.

If you want to install a solar thermal system, a grant of £300 is on offer. If your home is without mains gas heating, and you’re interested in benefiting from heat pump technology, you could qualify for a one-off payment of £850 towards air source heat pumps, or £1250 for ground source heat pumps. For biomass technology, a £950 grant is available to help with the upfront cost of a biomass boiler

The RHPP scheme closes on 31 March 2012.

Under the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme, funding for social landlords to install renewable heating technologies has been increased to £4 million.

The announcement was made at yesterday’s Solar Power UK 2011 conference in Birmingham, with Greg Barker, the Minister for Energy and Climate Change confirming that funding set aside for social housing has been increased by 33%.

In August, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) launched the RHPP, the first phase of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme. An initial pot of £3 million was made available, and housing associations and local authorities were invited to bid for up to £175,000 to help off set the installation costs of renewable heating equipment.

According to the energy minister, 34 projects had made successful applications, but he added that overall interest in the scheme had been somewhat disappointing.

“Take up under the RHPP is marginally slower than expected, particularly for solar thermal, and I would urge you all to embrace this scheme which is due to finish at the end of March next year,” he said.

Technologies eligible under the RHPP range from air source heat pumps and biomass boilers, to ground source heat pumps and solar water heating.

Heating industry insiders are concerned that the Renewable Heat Premium Payment could be in danger of running out of funds, as well as creating a stop-start renewables installation programme.

Despite receiving a warm welcome from the majority of the heating industry, that’s the concern expressed by Worcester, Bosch Group, who fear that the scheme is at risk of encountering a mad rush for registrations before the money allotted runs out.

The Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) initiative offers one-off grants which will enable people to invest in renewable sources of heating technology. £15 million has been set aside to support the deployment of around 25,000 renewable heat generators.

According to the Energy Saving Trust – who are administering the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), since the initiative was announced on 21 July, some 2,700 households had already expressed an interest in applying for grants the day after the scheme officially launched, on 1 August.

Neil Schofield, head of external and governmental affairs at Worcester, Bosch Group, said that while they welcomed the RHPP, they believe there is a danger that the £15 million the Government has set aside is in danger of running out well before the March 2012 deadline, when the scheme closes.

“We are in danger of engendering a mad rush for registrations before the money runs out, a situation we found quite frequently some years ago when the grants for solar installations were in place and the money was frequently all claimed on the first day,” Mr Schofield explained.

Mr Schofield said he was concerned that an onrush of people requesting installations could result in good installers not being able to provide the swift turnaround needed, which would leave the not so good installers to pick up the work.

“With a six month delay built-in from October to March next year, we also risk a stop-start approach to installations which will make it very difficult for installers, particularly those who are basing a large percentage of their business around renewable technologies,” he added.

The first phase of the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme – the Premium Payment – has been launched to a mixed reaction from leading industry figures.

The forerunner of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was unveiled last week by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), and means installations of renewable heating technologies such as heat pumps, solar water heating and biomass boilers will become more affordable for homeowners.

With a funding pot of up to £15 million available, DECC believes that up to 25,000 installations could be achieved. The one-off payments range from £300 for solar thermal, up to £1,250 for fitting ground source heat pumps.

Generally regarded as an important and necessary move towards trying to encourage households to invest in renewable heating, the consensus remains that there are still many questions that remain unanswered.

“Until more in known about the eligibility criteria for the full domestic RHI scheme, it’s uncertain whether the RHPP will give householders the confidence to opt for renewable heating, without the certainty of ongoing financial support,” said Chris Davis, business development director for Dimplex Renewables.

Boiler and renewables manufacturer Vokèra said that while the Premium Payment would help, they don’t believe it will be enough to dramatically increase the uptake of renewables. The manufacturer also expressed a disappointed when it came to the criteria for the RHI tariffs, saying they still remained unclear.

“This could be a stumbling block to initial uptake, as homeowners who receive the RHPP are not guaranteed the ongoing RHI tariffs which are expected to launch in October 2012,” said marketing director Eleanor Fox.

Neil Schofield, head of external and governmental affairs at Worcester, Bosch Group also voiced his concerns over the tariff levels, which he said remain very opaque.

However, Kelly Butler, BEAMA Domestic Heat Pump Association’s director was very positive about the scheme. He said he was pleased to see that the scheme is running to the original  time frame so that installers and their customers have a full heating season to specify and install the renewable heating technology measures.

“The RHPP scheme will take the industry one step closer to its goal of one million heat pumps installed by 2020,” he added.

On Thursday last week, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne announced the reopening of the Warm Front scheme, which aims to provide financial support for eligible households that struggle to cope with the cost of central heating and insulation.

The Warm Front scheme was suspended late last year after the Government declared there was no cash left for new applications. Amid deep public spending cuts, the Department for Energy and Climate Change had to concede that no further funds would be made available after its annual budget of £345 million was expended by Christmas.

With the arrival of the new financial year, the Department for Energy and Climate Change was able to reopen the Warm Front scheme for new applications.

Mr Huhne stated: “We have improved the Warm Front scheme so it’s better targeted at those who need it most, helping around 90,000 households over the next two years. Next year, we will be launching the Green Deal, the Government’s national overhaul of home energy efficiency, which will provide extra help to vulnerable households”.

Despite much of Britain enjoying fine weather of late, millions of people across the country continue to experience fuel poverty, which has been defined by the UK Government as arising when at least 10 per cent of a household’s income is spent on energy bills.

The Warm Front scheme aims to offer help to some of Britain’s most vulnerable households, yet not all people who have been living in fuel poverty are eligible to receive payments under the initiative. The UK Government claims to have addressed this issue by widening the criteria used to assess eligibility, with various income-related benefits being considered to focus on fuel poor households.

Although it is good news that the Warm Front scheme is once again accepting applications and that greater attention is to be paid to supporting low-income families, the initiative’s budget has been cut from £345m for 2010/2011 to just £110m for 2011/2012. If unseasonably cold weather grips the nation as it did in 2009 and 2010, it is quite likely that the Warm Front scheme will again be closed for business by Christmas.

The UK’s Coalition Government – the same administration that promised to be the ‘greenest ever’ last year – has announced plans to introduce a 70 per cent cut to the Feed-In Tariff scheme (FIT) for large solar energy enterprises.

Due to come into effect on August 1, 2011, the move would reduce payments made to landowners, farmers and commercial property owners under FITs. The proposal affects any solar installation that produces 50kW of solar-generated electricity, whilst the full 70 per cent reduction would apply to installations producing 250kW to 5MW of power. Understandably, the solar industry has reacted with dismay and anger to the proposal, which remains subject to consultation.

Ben Warren, of Ernst and Young, said: “The whole investor market was totally disengaged as a result of the Feed-In Tariff being ripped up.” Meanwhile, Ray Noble, of the Renewable Energy Association, commented: “It’s an absolute disaster. No new projects will start after this comes into effect.”

Attempting to explain how the proposal would benefit the solar industry in the UK, Climate Change Minister Greg Baker said: “I want to make sure that we capture the benefits of fast-falling costs in solar technology to allow even more homes to benefit, rather than see that money go in bumper profits to a small number of big investors.”

Unfortunately, the proposal is more likely to dissuade large corporations from investing in solar technology than it will encourage new solar panel developments on a scale large enough to benefit a significant number of homes.

The Government did, however, make the point that the reduction would result in greater funds being made available for domestic solar panel projects. As funds are collected through consumer energy bills, it is perhaps only fitting that more money is reserved for domestic solar PV projects.

The Feed-In Tariff works by enabling homeowners and companies to generate electricity from solar photovoltaic panels, which are typically installed on rooftops, before exporting it to the National Grid. Under FITs, around 41p per kilowatt hour is paid for such electricity, making solar panels an important investment in the home. Whether solar technology remains a viable opportunity for larger companies after the Government’s proposal is implemented remains to be seen.

The UK’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) will not be launched until October 2012, it has been revealed.

Further details of the scheme have today been published, confirming that technologies such as solar thermal and ground source heat pumps are qualified by the scheme.

The launch of the scheme was originally pitched for April, and then June 2011. It has now been pushed back further to coincide with the Government’s Green Deal.

According to Government figures, the £860m scheme expects to increase green capital investment by £4.5 billion up to 2020, stimulating a new market in renewable heating.

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, who launched the RHI, said: “Renewable heat is a largely untapped resource and an important new green industry of the future.

“This incentive is the first of its kind in the world.  It’ll help the UK shift away from fossil fuel, reducing carbon emissions and encouraging innovation, jobs and growth in new advanced technologies.”

Currently around half of the UK’s carbon emissions come from the energy used to produce heat – more than from generating electricity. The RHI will reduce emissions by 44 million tonnes of carbon to 2020, equivalent to the annual carbon emitted by 20 typical new gas power stations.

Industry, commercial and public sectors will be eligible under the RHI to install technologies like biomass boilers, heat pumps and solar thermal. Community projects will also be eligible, provided a single installation is generating heat to more than one house.

Tariffs will be paid for 20 years to eligible technologies that have been installed since July 15, 2009 with payments being made for each kWh of renewable heat which is produced.

Tariff payments will start for homes alongside the Green Deal from 2012.

In the meantime, up to 25,000 installations from July will be supported by a new ‘RHI Premium Payment’ to help people cover the purchase price of green heating systems. Those taking up the premium will then be eligible for a RHI tariff from October 2012 when the Green Deal begins, as will anyone else who has had eligible equipment installed from July 2009.

The RHI Premium Payment will be worth around £15m and will ensure there is “a fair spread of technologies across all regions of Great Britain”.

There will be clear eligibility criteria in order to qualify for a Premium payment, including:

• A well insulated home based on its energy performance certificate
• Agreeing to give feedback on how the equipment performs

The Government is expected to publish details of the RHI Premium Payment and how this will apply in May. Consultations on the RHI tariffs that will apply from October 2012 will be carried out later in the year.

SunShare is the latest new solar investment scheme for UK households.

Like the Government’s Feed-In Tariff (FIT), this scheme will help homeowners to combat rising energy costs. However, the unique selling point of this scheme is that it works in conjunction with the Feed-In Tariff to provide further benefits.

SunShare was officially launched on January 17, 2011 by Avonline PLC. Eligible homes are those which install solar panels with SunShare.

SunShare have ownership of the system, but this can be brought outright after 10, 15 or 20 years. Under the scheme, this means vastly reduced installation costs and free maintenance for 25 years.

To qualify certain criteria such as a south facing roof must be met.

Qualifying homes will benefit from free electricity, significantly reduced energy bills, and the perks of the Feed-In Tariff scheme, which sees homeowners, businesses and communities receive payments for generating their own renewable electricity. At present you will be paid 41.3p per kWh.

Payments made out by the Feed-In Tariff are shared between SunShare and its applicants. The amount you receive is up to you and can be anything between 30 – 50 per cent of the Feed-In Tariff.

According to Mark Wynn, managing director of Avonline PLC, qualifying homes could get a fully installed solar PV system for as little as £3,999 and reduce their electricity bills by 40 per cent.

Npower’s new Warm Home Grant could see some customers receiving £350 towards the cost of replacing old boilers.

The announcement will be welcoming news to many in light of the Government’s decision to put Warm Front funding on hold until April 2011.

As a leading energy supplier in the UK, npower is offering eligible customers a £350 grant to go towards the cost of replacing old boilers. Warm Home Grants will be available for residents aged 60 or over, who own or privately rent their home. The grant can be used against the installation of a new A-rated energy efficient boiler.

The grant, which will be available until the end of March, is the first of its kind to be offered by an energy supplier.

Joan Coe, marketing manager for npower hometeam commented: “The Government’s Warm Front scheme plays a vital role in making homes warmer, healthier and more energy efficient. Whilst Warm Front funding is on hold until April 2011, we felt it was vital to play our part in supporting the nation by offering our own £350 grant for resident replacing a boiler that is more than 10-years-old.

“New A-rated boilers are over 90 per cent efficient but older boilers might be less than 60 per cent efficient. These boilers are more susceptible to breaking down. This can pose a health and safety risk to homeowners as well as having financial implications, so we’re pleased to be able to make this commitment to provide the Warm Home grant until March 2011.”

The npower Warm Home Grant will be operating across England. The grant will not only offer savings on boiler installation, but will also help residents save money on gas bills.