The Commercial Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)
The Renewable Heat Incentive is a Government financial incentive scheme to promote renewable heat generation in the UK.
The scheme became available in November 2011 and currently the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is only available to non-domestic properties, however the domestic RHI is likely to come in to effect summer 2013.
The Renewable Heat Incentive applies to any non-domestic system in England, Scotland and Wales and the system must have been installed in the property after the 15th July 2009.
Non-domestic organisations will receive payments based on the metered amount of heat generated on a quarterly basis, guaranteed for 20 years.
Solar thermal (up to 200kWth), biomass boilers and ground source heat pumps are currently eligible technologies for the Commercial Renewable Heat Incentive and the tariff rates can be seen below. The second phase of the RHI, due to be introduced later this year is expected to include other renewable energy systems.
DECC have set out new proposals to improve the performance and manage the future budget of the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive. To ensure that the RHI budget is managed effectively, they are proposing to introduce a flexible degression based system. Under this system, tariffs would be reduced for new applicants if uptake approaches pre-determined trigger points. Tests to see whether degression is needed would take place quarterly, and if a tariff reduction is needed, one months notice will be given.
DECC has also set out plans to introduce greater environmental sustainability into the RHI through the inclusion of standards on biomass sustainability. They will also be looking to simplify the metering arrangements for the RHI, reducing the administrative burden on the participants of the scheme.
