According to the biggest manufacturer of central heating equipment in the UK, Worcester Bosch, the move towards so-called microgeneration is likely to trip over red tape currently restricting the availability of new certified installers of renewable energy equipment.

Microgeneration refers to a governmental scheme designed to encourage millions of UK households to produce their own electricity through various green methods. Such methods include the use of solar panels, heat pumps and wind turbines, which can all produce clean renewable energy in the domestic context. Recent measures introduced by the UK Government aim to fix the feed-in tariff available for households producing green electricity and selling it back to the National Grid.

Specifically, from next month onwards, a fixed rate of up to 41p a kilowatt hour will be available for households that have installed roof-mounted solar panels, whilst up to 34.5p a kilowatt hour will be available for households that have installed wind turbines or windmills. These tariffs will be made available to Britain’s 26 million or so households; however, early adopters of domestic renewable energy equipment will miss out on the new rates, which has resulted in widespread criticism of the Government. Nevertheless, the new tariffs are designed to encourage more people to install renewable energy equipment at home, so rewarding early adopters of the technology is not a key concern for the Government.

Other than the early adopter argument, there would seem to be very little reason why the new feed-in tariffs will not prove a major success; however, according to Worcester Bosch, the scheme may face a more practical set-back unless the route to becoming a certified renewable energy equipment installer changes. In the UK, under the Gas Safe scheme, there are approximately 120,000 registered gas engineers, whereas there are only 500 or so certified installers of renewable energy equipment. As the Head of Sustainable Development for Worcester Bosch, Neil Schofield, pointed out training to qualify under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) is “expensive, onerous and full of red tape”. Although the MCS is useful in weeding out cowboy engineers, it would also appear to represent a major disincentive for gas engineers wanting to work in the microgeneration industry.

On Tuesday, the UK Government proposed legislation that would enable homeowners to take out loans worth thousands of pounds in order to meet its ambitious environmental targets. Under the legislation, homeowners would take out loans against their homes to install loft insulation, cavity wall insulation or solar panels.

As any such loan would be fixed against the home itself rather than the individual who took it out, if a homeowner moves out of the house he or she would not be liable to repay the outstanding balance; indeed, the loan would continue to be affixed to the house, so any new owner would inherit its annual charge.

Although the requirement for a person who was not party to the original credit agreement to continue repayments on it is likely to prompt much discussion in the legal sphere, the question of whether or not it will have any impact on the future housing market remains to be seen; in fact, it would probably only be a good thing, as new homeowners could enjoy savings on domestic energy bills as a direct result of increased efficiency through insulation and an alternative clean power source in solar energy.

The issue of domestic energy bills in the context of the Government’s carbon emission targets is becoming a cause for concern across the country. Although most people are not opposed to environmentally friendly measures, the majority of households are becoming increasingly conscious of their domestic energy bills in light of the economic downturn and recent cold weather.

Following news that the major energy suppliers in the UK are posting record profits without passing wholesale fuel savings on to consumers, many households are concerned that fuel bills will endure rise after rise throughout the coming decade. It is expected that around 60% of the estimated £18.6 billion cost of the Government’s green energy measures will be passed on to consumers through the major energy suppliers. The latest green legislation proposed by the Government plans to use finance from retailers such as B&Q and banks such as the Co-op in order to provide the loans to homeowners, which may be available from 2012 onwards.

Having come under fire from opposition parties – most notably the Liberal Democrats – the incumbent Labour Government has finally announced revisions to its proposed feed-in tariffs (FITs). The tariffs are available to any household, business or community that generates electricity from various renewable sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines.

Essentially, this means money is paid to those who produce so-called ‘green’ power which can be fed back into the National Grid. Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, claimed the new feed-in tariffs demonstrate Labour’s ambitiousness in bringing small-scale low-carbon electricity generation online. Predictably, however, the proposed feed-in tariffs have attracted strong criticism on a number of fronts.

The new feed-in tariffs offer fixed prices for a set period of time. In terms of numbers, retro-fitted solar photovoltaic panels (PV) will attract the highest feed-in tariff of 41.3p/kWh, whilst micro-wind turbines will be subject to a tariff of 34.5p/kWh. According to Mr Miliband, the plans “represent a significant level of ambition and are comparable to countries that are leading in this area”; in fact, Mr Miliband also claimed a typical domestic installation of a 2.5 kilowatt peak photovoltaic system would earn the household £900 each year and save £140 on its annual electricity bill. Whilst these numbers may seem appealing, there remains a degree of uncertainty as to how realistic they are, which clouds the issue of return on investment. Based on Mr Miliband’s £900/year prediction, the ROI is likely to fall somewhere between 5 and 8%, which is considerably short of the Renewable Energy Association’s target of 10% (which happens to be the typical level in Germany).

Perhaps the most contentious issue surrounding the Government’s new feed-in tariffs is that of its ambitiousness in terms of overall production; indeed, despite the increased tariffs, Mr Miliband has stressed the aim to produce 2% of the country’s electricity via small-scale low-carbon systems (or ‘microgeneration’) by 2020 remains unchanged. Campaigners claim that a 6% output is realistic, which may appear insignificant but is actually the equivalent of two Sizewell B sized nuclear power stations. Therefore, it would seem microgeneration is not a top priority for the current Labour Government.

In a report published on Wednesday, experts at the Royal Academy of Engineering ridiculed a trend that many homeowners had thought would help save the planet (or at least its human inhabitants). According to the report, the installation of so-called ‘eco-bling’ devices such as solar panels and wind turbines does not sufficiently contribute towards reducing carbon emissions.

In fact, the Royal Academy of Engineering has claimed that installing eco-bling will make virtually no impact on the UK Government’s carbon emission targets, which aim for an 80% reduction by 2050. Although new homes built in the UK must be zero-carbon by 2016, this does nothing to address the myriad old homes in the country that heavily pollute the atmosphere with carbon emissions.

The author of the report, Doug King, who is a professor of Building Engineering Physics at the University of Bath, described eco-bling as “unnecessary renewable energy [devices] visibly attached to the outside of poorly-designed buildings” and went on to claim the installation of solar panels and wind turbines offers a “zero-sum approach”. Professor King’s report is based on the view that although it may be fashionable to install eco-bling in an otherwise environmentally unfriendly home, it does little to address the real issue that is the environmentally unfriendly home itself; indeed, as King argued, “if you build something that is just as energy-hungry as every other building and then put a few wind turbines and solar cells on the outside that addresses a few per cent of that building’s energy consumption, you’ve achieved nothing”.

The Royal Academy of Engineering’s report will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of homeowners who had laboured under the apparent misconception solar cells and wind turbines contributed more favourably to the environment. Of course, the substantial argument of the report does not heap criticism on renewable energy devices so much as it criticises their use on energy inefficient homes. The crux of the report is that, in order to achieve the Government’s lofty carbon emission targets, more must be done to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes. Installing solar cells and wind turbines, it would seem, is unlikely to do the job.

According to a recent report in the Guardian online news service, The Crown Estate has announced the names of nine winning organisations that had been bidding for windfarms that are set to produce some 25GW of electricity for domestic use. The bids were tendered as part of the UK Government’s new £75 billion programme to construct thousands of offshore wind turbines around Britain, which are hoped to go some way towards solving the country’s green energy requirements.

The winning bidders (in no particular order) comprise E.On Climate and Renewables UK, Centrica Renewable Energy, Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd., SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd., the Forewind Consortium, Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable Power, Eneco New Energy, RWE Npower Renewables and East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd.

Much speculation has centred on the capabilities of wind power as a means of addressing the nation’s renewable energy aspirations. Undoubtedly, it is crucial that Britain continues to strive towards producing green energy initiatives in order to secure a healthier future not just for itself but also the world; indeed, climate change is a very real problem that is starting to position itself as a threat to modern living.

According to PM Gordon Brown, the nine licences issued to the aforementioned organisations will provide a “substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity” and that the “offshore wind industry is at the heart of the UK economy’s shift to low carbon and could be worth £75 billion and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020″.

With dwindling supplies of oil and gas – oil production from the North Sea is currently being outstripped by demand and Britain reportedly has just eight days worth of gas in storage compared to France and Germany’s four months or so – and an ever-increasing hole appearing in the ozone layer, there is arguably no greater time than the present to invest in green energy technologies. Whether the UK Government’s strategy to source 15% of its total energy needs from wind power by 2020 is ambitious enough or even realistic enough remains to be seen.

One of the UK’s leading energy companies, E.ON, announced on Tuesday that planning consent had been granted by the South Lanarkshire Council for the development of its proposed Dungavel wind farm. Situated on Dungavel Hill, which lies to the south of Strathaven, the wind farm’s approval is likely to stimulate employment in the region whilst it will also provide a significant amount of renewable energy for the local community.

In fact, the Dungavel Hill wind farm is estimated to produce up to 29.9 MW, which is enough to power some 20,000 homes based on the UK’s average annual consumption of 4,725 kWh per home. Comprising thirteen large wind turbines, the project is also thought to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 40,000 tonnes per year, which is also based on current Government statistics.

However, whilst the approval of the Dungavel Hill wind farm project will come as good news to all those concerned about the planet, such ventures are not always met without opposition. Indeed, many a so-called NIMBY (not-in-my-back-yard) has objected to similar projects throughout the UK on the grounds that the rather unsightly wind farms spoil the environment, which ought to be preserved at all costs. Although the irony of such an argument evidently fails to dawn on protesters, it is quite clear to most ordinary folk that protecting the planet – in terms of ensuring its habitability for human beings – involves cutting carbon emissions by massive amounts.

Of course, not everybody agrees with the climate change forecasts of which they are constantly reminded. Nevertheless, there is sufficient scientific evidence to show that the protective ozone layer surrounding the planet is fast disappearing and that certain greenhouse gases – notably carbon dioxide – are chiefly to blame. Therefore, it is with considerable satisfaction that the Dungavel wind farm, which will make a significant local contribution to carbon emission targets, has been met with little opposition.

Most people are now familiar with terms such as global warming, the greenhouse effect and carbon footprints, which is why many people have chosen to live their lives in an altogether greener and more environmentally friendly manner. Indeed, if the planet were to suffer the sort of climate change predicted by scientists, human beings would not fare too well.

However, it is arguably not too late to do something about the state of the planet, which is why numerous homeowners attempt to do their bit by insulating lofts, cavity walls and upgrading their central heating boilers.

Greener initiatives include solar panel installations, which had become popular throughout the UK before losing favour to a certain extent. Indeed, rightly or wrongly, solar panels have become associated with cost inefficiency, which is certainly not a desirable badge to wear in the current economic climate. However, tests undertaken by the independent EU Energy Institute suggest that domestic solar panel installations actually constitute excellent long term investments. In fact, the EU Energy Institute predict that solar panels will be competitive with energy supplied by the grid in terms of cost for around half of all homes in Europe by 2020. Furthermore, this is apparently achievable without Government subsidies.

The Institute also conducted tests on existing solar panels and found that around 90 percent of models could last for some 30 years instead of the predicted 20 years. This encouraging find has prompted the Institute to suggest that banks ought to offer mortgages on solar panels in order to help stimulate the market. Moreover, as solar panels are manufactured in bulk, the inevitable increase in supply will naturally reduce prices. According to the Institute, solar panel costs dipped by 30% in the previous year and are likely to drop further as output increases and demand is tempered by the ongoing economic problems.

According to the organisation behind a £5 million social housing project that is due for construction in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, the prospective new homes will be so energy efficient that central heating will become completely redundant.

Indeed, Habitat for Humanity Northern Ireland is keen to stress the environmentally friendly aspects of its project, which is scheduled for completion in the next three years.

Specifically, the houses will be constructed using advanced technologies from Tyrone Timberframes, which is a local firm that specialises in domestic energy efficiency. In fact, each house in the project is expected to offer 75% more energy efficiency than the average home.

The Madrid Street development is thought to be the first social housing project in the UK that precludes the necessity of central heating systems. Indeed, the houses will feature completely air-tight designs that are made possible by triple glazed windows throughout. Each of the houses will also comprise a “whole house ventilation” system, which, according to a report published by the BBC, will recover up to 80% of the heat from stale air by filtering and redistributing it throughout the home. Tyrone Timberframes will also employ energy efficient timber frames, whilst the homes are expected to feature sufficient loft insulation in addition to many other basic measures.

If the project proves to be successful, the energy efficient houses may become standard as the world continues to battle against the looming threat of global warming. Furthermore, the Madrid Street development offers additional benefits to those who take up residence in the properties, which are expected to cost around £100,000 each, although are likely to end up in the hands of tenants rather than homeowners. Indeed, by removing domestic central heating systems, the project serves to combat fuel poverty, which is likely to become a more significant issue over the coming years.

Every so often, a thick and expansive cloud of sand whips up in the Sahara and travels in a north easterly direction towards Europe and the Atlantic Ocean. Rarely, people in the UK will notice the occasional deposit of African sand on their cars, driveways and lawns.

Whilst the thought of something so far away making its way to the UK is remarkable enough, the idea that the Sahara Desert may also supply the nation with green renewable energy is bordering on the far-fetched. However, plans are in transit to turn the Sahara, which covers more than 9,000,000 square kilometres and experiences massive quantities of sunlight each year, into an enormous solar power farm.

Obviously, the Sahara Desert is too vast to be completely filled with solar panels and, in fact, many parts of the desert have experienced ‘greening’ over the last couple of decades as the climate has become marginally wetter. Nevertheless, the world’s largest hot desert offers a unique opportunity for truly massive amounts of electricity to be generated via solar panels. The plan to harness Saharan solar power is spearheaded by a German-led consortium of twelve companies, which includes Siemens, ABB and Deutsche Bank, in addition to one of the UK’s largest domestic energy suppliers, E.ON.

The so-called Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) plans to invest some £240bn in developing Saharan solar panel farms to provide Europe with approximately 15% of its total demand for electricity by 2050. One of the driving factors behind the plans is obviously to help Europe achieve its green energy objectives, which aim to lower carbon emissions. North African countries and those in the Middle East will also likely avail of the DII’s plans, which include the rollout of one gigawatt power stations in the desert within the next five years.

The UK’s green energy targets have been widely derided as lacking ambition or not sufficiently aggressive to make a difference to global warming. Indeed, the facts remain that the hole in the ozone layer is expanding at an alarming rate, having increased in size from 130,000 sq km to 25,000,000 sq km in the past thirty years.

Whilst supranational agreements are sought on climate change, domestic energy consumers have been made aware of their obligations to help reverse the effects of global warming by reducing the size of their carbon footprints . In fact, many energy companies now offers customers the opportunity to purchase high efficiency condensing boilers and  electricity that has been generated entirely from clean, renewable sources. However, those aforementioned substandard renewable energy targets of the UK Government are actually proving to be more ambitious than first thought, but for the wrong reason.

Unfortunately, whilst critics continue to condemn the Government’s apparently half-hearted efforts to reverse climate change, those efforts are in themselves failing. Indeed, generating clean electricity from wind power is one of the driving forces behind the UK’s green energy strategy, yet the recent closure of the Vestas turbine manufacturing plant, which would have been involved in much of the development of new wind turbine plants in Britain, has blown the wind out of its sails. Faced with the prospect of a failing strategy that is already derided as insufficient, Gordon Brown PM aims to recapture the initiative by holding talks with Peter Löscher, the chief executive of Siemens, which only last week received a Government grant of £1.1m to help develop an offshore wind power converter. The prime objective of the talks is to convince Siemens, which is yet to commit to more extensive green energy developments in the country, that Britain is an attractive option for such business.