Geothermal may get subsidy boost

Bloomberg reports that Geothermal energy may get a welcome boost from increased subsidies as Government officials begin to realise the enormous potential it offers.

Unlike wind and solar that require nature to 'co-operate'. Geothermal is very stable and so provides a very sound platform on which to build reliable alternative power sources.

Presently, the UK has just one operating deep geothermal well, which provides heating to buildings in Southampton and long the south coast.

Devon and Cornwall are considered 'hot spots' for geothermal energy. The wells are drilled to a depth of around 2 miles deep, where they tap into underground steam or hot water.

Britain already has the drilling expertise to complete the bore holes but the industry fears that without increased subsidies, investors may move abroad to larger installations.

It's a tricky business - investors often also look for certain insulation from drilling risks before committing money to such projects.

photo credit: stephen nakatani

Should I wait for the Government review before installing solar panels?

There's been a lot of headlines, and we've posted our own articles, on the Government's decision to review feed-in tariffs with regards larger scale installations.

This has come in the wake of fears that investors are cashing in on the lucrative tariff payments by backing large scale installations on brown field sites, particularly in the South of England.

Understandably, homeowners get nervous at the thought of tariffs being reduced - will they continue and is it still worth installing photovoltaic solar energy?

As we understand it, the present tariff's (for homeowners) will still be reviewed in 2012. Any reduction to the feed-in tariff being paid to installations already created and claiming, cannot legally be reduced.

So if you've already got your solar panel installation in place and are claiming the feed in tariff, then it will take a lot of bureaucracy to reduce the amount you get paid.

The same is true for those considering a solar panel installation - getting in now before any review of rates or tariffs is probably the best course of action.

This March will see a Government review on larger scale installations - it's not expected to affect homeowners.

Homeowners still worried about a potential for reducing tariff rates would do well to look at other countries which have all had to reduce their tariffs due to over-subscription. Countries like Germany, Italy and Spain.

Whilst the rates for new subscribers were reduced, existing installations (to our knowledge) were un-affected.

photo credit: chris connelly

How the Green Deal will work

Reuters ran a very good article on how the UK's Green Deal will work, though an interview between the Energy Minister Greg Barker and Yale Environment 360.

Click here to read the full article for yourself.

I did just want to quote one answer from it though - once the politician had actually stopped spouting 'political speak' and answered the question put to him - namely, how will the Green Deal work?

Here's his answer:

"What we're going to do is go away from the stop-go, government-funded programs, and through using smart regulation, open up this market to the private sector. We believe we can create a market that will bring in billions of pounds of investment into energy efficiency for homes and businesses. We're going to create a mechanism whereby the cost of making these [energy-efficiency] measures can all be financed through pay-as-you-save models, with the finance being repaid over a period of 20 years through the bill on each individual property. Now, that's a big change. To date it had to be paid upfront, either by the individual homeowner or through a grant. By pinning the repayments to the bill of the property, it means it's not a debt. It's not even a mortgage. It doesn't need to be credit-scored, because if the individual living in that particular home moves, dies, ownership changes, or they cease to rent, it stays on the bill of that property, just like the conventional energy bill.

But there's one golden rule: The cost of financing the measures, which would be anything up to 6,000 pounds, must always be less than the savings anticipated from the installations [of energy-efficiency measures]."

So one 'golden rule' and upfront costs paid by private sector finance.

Sounding almost too good to be true.

photo credit: conor lawless