Press Release
Calor welcomes proposed increase in mCHP FITs
1 February 2012
Greg Barker MP calls for bringing microCHP as a price-competitive alternative to the conventional boiler.
Calor Gas Ltd welcomes the statement today by Greg Barker MP, Minister of State for Energy & Climate Change, that the Government will be bringing forward a new increased Feed-in Tariff (FIT) level for Micro Combined Heat and Power (mCHP) installations.
MicroCHP refers to a group of technologies that generate both usable heat and electricity. Like a conventional condensing boiler, an mCHP appliance requires an input fuel. The most common input fuel is natural gas or LPG in rural areas. The heat produced can be used for space heating and/or hot water. Utilising the UK’s existing gas network and installer skills, mCHP efficiently produces heat to keep a home warm while simultaneously empowering consumers to generate low-carbon electricity that can be used on-site or exported to the grid.
In an adjournment debate in the House of Commons today (1 February 2012), the Minister said that mCHP could play a much larger role in driving the decentralised energy revolution and that the Government had ‘a clear role in bringing microCHP to market as an attractive, price-competitive alternative to taking electricity from the mains grid or installing a conventional boiler’. Mr Barker said that mCHP will be the only technology for which the Government is prepared to raise the tariff.
Paul Blacklock, Calor’s Director of Strategy, said, ‘The mCHP industry is convinced that the installation of over 1 million mCHP units in the UK by 2020 is an essential and entirely plausible goal. But the right Government support was always going to be key to make this happen. The Minister’s announcement that the Government shares the ambition for mass scale of mCHP is good news as is his agreement with us that the ambition for 1 million mCHP units by 2020 is something that they should be thinking about. We had asked the government to raise the FIT for mCHP to at least 15p/kWh but we welcome the announcement today that the Government is prepared to increase it beyond the 10p/kWh at which it is currently valued.
‘However, it is very important that the rules around the scheme offer a fair deal for rural householders.
The Rural Citizen has largely passed under the radar of Government energy policy for many years and it is important that this issue is addressed in any new policy. They should be "rural proofed" - as ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) has called for.’
To speak to Paul Blacklock, please contact Olivia Pay on 0207 591 9610 or at oliviap@blj.co.uk
Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.
As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.