New Rates for Feed In Tariffs & update on the Renewable Heat Incentive
On April 1st 2011 the feed-in tariff (FIT) levels were increased in line with the RPI by 4.5%
In March 2011 the DECC announced the rates for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for Commercial properties, the rates for Domestic porperties are due to be announced by the end of June 2011.
The Domestic RHI is not due to start payment until the middle of 2012, however certain new installations will be eligible for the 'Renewable Heat Incentive Premium Payment' which is an interim scheme to support installations before the RHI starts for installations in 2012
All systems installed between now and the start of the RHI will qualify for the RHI whether they receive the Premium Payment or not
Full details of the announced Feed In Tariffs and domestic Renewable Heat Incentive are set out below
Feed In Tariff
The tariff levels for the electricity financial incentives (pence) are shown in the table below
Complete listing of all Generation Tariff levels up to March 2012
| Technology | Scale | Tariff level | Tariff lifetime (years) |
| Anaerobic digestion | ≤250kW | 14.0 | 20 |
| Anaerobic digestion | >250 - 500kW | 13.0 | 20 |
| Anaerobic digestion | >500kW | 9.4 | 20 |
| Hydro | ≤15 kW | 20.9 | 20 |
| Hydro | >15 - 100kW | 18.7 | 20 |
| Hydro | >100kW - 2MW | 11.5 | 20 |
| Hydro | >2MW - 5MW | 4.7 | 20 |
| Micro-CHP | <2 kW | 10.5 | 10 |
| Solar PV | ≤4 kW new | 37.8 | 25 |
| Solar PV | ≤4 kW retrofit | 43.3 | 25 |
| Solar PV | >4-10kW | 37.8 | 25 |
| Solar PV | >10 - 50kW | 32.9 | 25 |
| Solar PV | >50kW - 150kW | 19.0 | 25 |
| Solar PV | >150kW - 250kW | 15.0 | 25 |
| Solar PV | >250kW - 5MW | 8.5 | 25 |
| Solar PV | Standalone | 8.5 | 25 |
| Wind | ≤1.5kW | 36.2 | 20 |
| Wind | >1.5 - 15kW | 28.0 | 20 |
| Wind | >15 - 100kW | 25.3 | 20 |
| Wind | >100 - 500kW | 19.7 | 20 |
| Wind | >500kW - 1.5MW | 9.9 | 20 |
| Wind | >1.5MW - 5MW | 4.7 | 20 |
The FIT's are designed to take into account the anticipated reduction in cost of installation of certain technologies, there will be lower levels of payment for installations made in 2012-2013 (and they will get progressively lower in further years) This is known as degression and is the method being used to keep the FIT at a similar rate of Return On Investment as the technology gets cheaper.
Renewable Heat Incentive
The proposed tariff levels are shown in the table below. The levels have been calculated to give a return on investment of 12% (except solar thermal, which is lower), so are generally more generous than the Feed-in Tariffs.
Tariff levels for Renewable Heat Incentives
| Technology | Scale | Tariffs (pence/kWh) | Tariff lifetime (years) |
| Small installations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Solid biomass | Up to 45kW | 9 | 15 |
| Biodiesel | Up to 45kW | 6.5 | 15 |
| Biogas on-site combustion | Up to 45kW | 5.5 | 10 |
| Ground source heat pumps | Up to 45kW | 7 | 23 |
| Air source heat pumps | Up to 45kW | 7.5 | 18 |
| Solar thermal | Up to 20kW | 18 | 20 |
| Medium installations | |||
| Solid biomass | 45kW-500kW | 6.5 | 15 |
| Biogas on-soite combustion | 45kW-200kW | 5.5 | 10 |
| Ground source heat pumps | 45kW-350kW | 5.5 | 20 |
| Air source heat pumps | 45kW-350kW | 2 | 20 |
| Solar thermal | 20kW-100kW | 17 | 20 |
Unlike Electricity production where it is easy to determine the amount of energy produced from a meter reading, it is not easy to meter the production of heat energy. It is only proposed to meter the heat output of large systems. For household-scale and small systems the proposal is to calculate (deem) what that installation should produce to heat a well insulated building and to pay the tariff on that basis. That should encourage beneficiaries to adopt good energy efficiency standards too.
Full details of the FIT and RHI can be found on the DECC website