Under the new plans, the government has decided not to implement its original proposal to remove solar thermal from the RHI scheme. The technology will receive the same level of support at 19.74p/kWh for the next seven years.
The response details the following changes to the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which will be implemented in spring 2017:
- The tariffs for new ASHPs and GSHPs will be increased to 10.02 pence per kilowatthour (p/kWh) and 19.55p/kWh respectively.
- All new ASHPs and GSHPs applying for support under the scheme will be required to have electricity metering to monitor their heating system. However, payments will continue to be on the basis of the deemed heating requirements of the property, except
for second homes and where a renewable heating system is installed alongside another heating system, in which cases payments will continue to be on the basis of heat metering. - GSHPs making use of a shared ground loop will continue to be eligible for the nondomestic scheme and will not be eligible on the domestic scheme – see Chapter 4 for more details.
- The tariff for new biomass installations will be increased to 6.44p/kWh, the level available between October and December 2015, adjusted for inflation.
- Heat demand limits will be introduced, to limit the level of annual heat demand in respect of which any household can receive support. The heat demand limits will be set at 20,000kWh for ASHPs, 25,000kWh for biomass boilers and stoves and 30,000kWh
for GSHPs. However, this will not disqualify properties with higher heat demands fromapplying to the scheme. There will be no heat demand limit for solar thermal. - There will be some changes to the budget management arrangements for the scheme – these are set out in Chapter 5.
The Government also intend to introduce the option for households to assign their rights to payments through the scheme to a third party. However, this will not be delivered alongside the spring 2017 reforms. The Government now intends that this will be implemented at a later date, to provide extra time to implement adequate consumer protection. This reform will make way for new financing models to develop – for example, where a household receives a free or substantially reduced-cost heating system from a third party in return for assigning their rights to RHI payments to this third party.
To download the full BEIS response document, visit:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultat ... sed-scheme
For more information, see also:
http://www.energylivenews.com/2016/12/1 ... i-reforms/
Please see the consultation document for details of changes to the non-domestic RHI.
