The Scottish Government's Renewable Heat Action Plan identified
the introduction of a Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) as critical to
delivering the 11% renewable heat target for Scotland. The RHI,
which is scheduled to be launched in July 2011 will provide
financial assistance over a period of 20 years for the
generation of renewable heat, in the form of a
quarterly payment based on the amount of renewable heat
generated.
For full details of the Renewable Heat Incentive please see the
Department of Energy and
Climate Change.
Key aspects of the scheme are:
- Supported technologies include biomass, ground source and water
source heat pumps, solar thermal and biomethane.
- Tariffs have been published and can be found
in the
Renewable Heat Incentive Document. For small and
medium scale biomass there will be a tariff breakpoint at 1314 peak
load hours p.a. Below this small biomass will receive 7.6p/kWh, and
medium biomass will receive 4.7p/kWh, while above this both will
receive 1.9p/kWh. Large biomass receives a flar rate of
2.6p/kWh
- Under the RHI, organisations using renewable heat will receive
quarterly payments for 20 years from the date they
enter the scheme.
- In addition to support for new installations, organisations
which installed eligible renewable heat equipment since
15th July 2009 will also qualify for support under the
RHI.
- The scheme will be introduced in two
phases:-
In the first phase, long-term tariff support
will be targeted in the non-domestic sectors, at
the big heat users - the industrial, business and public sector -
which contribute 38% of the UK's carbon emissions. Under this phase
there will also be some support for households
through the Renewable Heat Premium Payment.
The second phase of the RHI scheme will see
households moved to long-term tariff
support similar to that offered to the non-domestic sector
in the first phase. This transition will be timed to align
with the Green Deal which is intended to be introduced in October
2012.
- Biomass installations of 1 MWth capacity
and above will be required to report quarterly on
the sustainability of their biomass feedstock for
combustion and where they are used to produce biogas. This
information will include the amount of biomass used, its type and
form, country of origin and whether an environmental accreditation
has been met.
- Text for the draft regulations that will underpin the tariff
scheme is still to be finalised.
- The first phase of the RHI will not include deeming:
payments will be based on metered heat.