06 Mar 2008 05:03:36
"Changes are needed" for Low Carbon Buildings Programme
Changes are needed to the government's Low Carbon Buildings Programme to encourage greater use of renewable resources at home, New Statesman has claimed.
The publication said that the UK could benefit from adopting a similar system to that of Germany, where residents are allowed to opt into a "feed-in" tariff which would see consumers receive long-term paybacks for generating green electricity from home.
It stated that the UK would benefit from scaling back the "complicated and cumbersome" Renewables Obligation system and instead introducing a guaranteed return for solar power or wind electricity.
In addition, the publication called for a budget increase for the Marine Renewables Deployment Fund, which could lead to greater commercial production of wave-generated low-carbon electricity.
Under the current Low Carbon Buildings Programme, homeowners can apply for grants to install microgeneration technologies such as solar panels or wind turbines.
The programme was set up by the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform and is managed by the Energy Saving Trust.
