Take advantage of FIT renewable energy payments
Low carbon business support agency, Envirolink Northwest, is encouraging people to take advantage of feed-in tariffs, a new Government scheme designed to benefit businesses across the UK with financial and environmental rewards.
The scheme, which will launch on 1 April 2010, will enable businesses installing small-scale renewable energy generating technologies such as wind turbines and solar photovoltaic panels on their premises, to claim payments for the electricity they produce whilst at the same time benefiting from reduced energy bills.
The tariff levels have been calculated to offer a 5% to 8% return on initial investment in the technology. In addition, electricity produced that is surplus to requirements can be sold back to the grid, producing another revenue stream. The government is guaranteeing these payments for up to 25 years depending on the technology. It has also been confirmed that installations commissioned since July 2009, when the policy was announced, will benefit from the scheme.
Joe Martin, manager of low carbon market development at Envirolink Northwest, said: "Businesses across our region should make sure that they benefit from the launch of the FIT scheme. Not only does it offer a significant opportunity to reduce the region's CO2 emissions but the guaranteed income levels mean that businesses can generate their own electricity for free once the capital costs of the equipment have been covered. With energy prices set to continue rising the business benefits of generating your own energy have never been better."
Envirolink Northwest is funded by Government, local authorities, industry and the NWDA to support the development and growth of the environmental technologies sector.
The current course of development of renewable energy is based on the lack of a public policy to support it here in the US and the continued hostility to it from for profit "public" utilities using coal and oil. In the next 12 months, the best thing that could happen to propel renewable energy forward is the adoption of a national policy to encourage (subsidize) the creation of renewable energy. And biofuels do not qualify as a renewable energy source, in my opinion, because of their impact on food production and the destruction of wilderness that occurs when more land is put into agricultural use. A national policy should adopt the Feed in Tarrif, such as in Germany, so that the capital costs of constructing renewable energy sources are quickly recovered, even for (especially for) residential systems. Advantage of Renewable energy
By Jekin