Renewable Heat Incentive is not just hot air it still may happen!

Coalition Government Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has provided some assurance on the government's plans for Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).

Huhne tells select committee heat measures are essential to hitting 2020 renewable targets.

“The HVAC industry needs the boost that a sensible incentive scheme could bring about” says Envirotec’s Development Director Steve Brown.

Talking about investment in off shore wind development Huhne alluded to the £60 million ports infrastructure competition going ahead, along with some form of renewable heat subsidy, although he stated that "nothing would be safe" until after the Spending Review due in October.

During the select committee's oral evidence session on September 15 Mr Huhne stressed: "I can't say it is safe in the Spending Review, because nothing is safe”.

Huhne stated that: "There are ring-fenced amounts of money for some departments, such as health, but nothing is ring-fenced for DECC."

During the discussion on to the need for a secure investment environment for businesses  Mr Huhne,  was told that a lot of SMEs felt that they didn't have the certainty to start investing to get involved in the ‘green economy', due to uncertainties over incentive schemes.

Mr Huhne claimed that he accepted government must try to reduce uncertainty as much as possible. And, he went on to take some responsibility for the delay with an announcement on the proposed RHI.

He said: "I have to take the blame for some of the delay on that. It was extremely rushed when doing the Coalition Agreement and we forgot to put the RHI in there.
Chris Huhne is also reported as saying: “It was only by accident that the RHI had been given less attention than it deserved. I have said as plainly as I can to the industry, ‘Hang on in there, the cavalry is coming.’”

"I have tried to make clear that we see heat as being key to meeting the target, so there will be a heat part of our renewable strategy, but again it is subject to the Spending Review."

Huhne strongly backed the RHI, or a programme of similar scope, in his appearance before the select committee.

“Make no mistake we see heat as essential to meeting the 15 per cent renewables targets by 2020,” he said. "I don’t think it will be possible to meet them without heat measures."

But he reiterated the current ministerial mantra that the detailed future of any government programme – the RHI included – is dependent on the CSR, which will be announced on 10 October.

Another important issue discussed at the meeting was whether the 2020 renewable energy target, currently standing at 15%, should be changed. This comes after the Committee on Climate Change wrote to Mr Huhne last week advising him to leave it.

Mr Huhne claimed that he agreed with the committee's recommendation, given that the 15% target is already very demanding with the UK coming from a current position of 3% renewable energy - one of the lowest rates in Europe.

He said: "We have a lot of catching up to do. I am determined to make sure we are hitting that target.

"There are risks with that seeing as we are so far behind. It is better to be more certain about meeting what is already a demanding target."

The energy secretary was quizzed on the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the UK and his thoughts on how important the technology will be in moving to a low carbon economy.

On this, Mr Huhne stressed that the UK has a potential lead on CCS and claimed he sees it as a very exciting technology.

"CCS is genuinely an area where the UK has an industrial advantage.

"It has the role of balancing intermittent renewable energy such as wind. We need something which can compensate for that and the only thing that is on the table economically is coal and gas with CCS", said Mr Huhne.