The Government is missing a trick if it doesn’t look at ways of incentivising homeowners to take-up the Green Deal using the feed-in-tariff, says renewable energy installer Freesource Energy.
With much debate about whether the Green Deal will be enough to convince homeowners to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes, Freesource argues that the feed-in-tariff has a crucial role to play in getting people to sign up to the scheme.
Alex Lockton, managing director at Freesource Energy, said:
“We believe it’s right that homeowners concentrate first on insulating their homes and getting the basics right before they move on to installing renewable energy. But it’s going to be difficult to persuade people to take on a debt to do so unless there is an extra incentive.
“To help achieve this, we’d like to see the Government introduce a new element to the Green Deal which would give homeowners access to an additional loan to pay for solar pv installations, which would then be subsidised through the feed-in-tariff.
“This would only be available to people who have used the Green Deal to make energy efficiency improvements and have hit the required EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) rating. This ‘bonus’ loan would act as a huge incentive, encouraging people to go for the Green Deal’s low hanging fruit first.
“By limiting the uptake of the feed-in-tariff by setting criteria in this way addresses the Government’s concerns on over-spend, while helping homeowners who commit to the Green Deal take control of their energy bills.”