Chancellor’s extension of green RHI scheme for renewable heating in budget welcomed

Changes announced in this week’s budget by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, which have seen the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) extended by a further year, are being welcomed as an important move in the UK’s efforts to tackle the climate emergency, by Attleborough-based renewable heating experts, Finn Geotherm.

The extension to the RHI scheme means that more homeowners who install renewable heating systems will be able to receive a significant tax-free benefit.

Guy Ransom, Commercial Director at Finn Geotherm, said:

“We have been campaigning long and hard to get an extension to the RHI and we can only welcome the Chancellor’s announcement. The climate emergency is now more than ever at the forefront of people’s minds and we simply have to do more to address the issue. In terms of heating for homes and other properties, the solution for a massive reduction in carbon emissions and a saving in costs of up to two thirds on energy bills is achievable through the fitting of ground or air source heat pumps, whatever age or kind of building.

“At a time when we all need to be doing our bit to tackle the climate emergency, the RHI scheme provides a great added incentive for customers to benefit from upgrading their heating and hot water systems to low carbon technology such as heat pumps. This is such a simple solution and, with the RHI and the savings on energy costs, customers get their investment back in around five years.”

The RHI is a government initiative designed to reward people for choosing to switch to a sustainable form of heating. Administered by the official regulator, Ofgem, the scheme is available for domestic customers under the Domestic RHI, and for commercial customers under the Non-domestic (Commercial) RHI. Based on the amount of clean, green heat produced, both schemes provide tax-free quarterly payments for seven years under the Domestic scheme or 20 years for Commercial.

The RHI had been set to end on 31^st March 2021 but yesterday’s budget saw this extended for domestic applicants by 12 months. The Non-domestic RHI has also changed following the budget and, from 31^st March 2021, will see commercial heat pump installations given flexible tariff guarantees, helping to provide investment certainty for larger and more cost-effective renewable heat projects.

Last month, Finn Geotherm announced it had reached the milestone of ensuring £20 million in Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) payments will be shared among the hundreds of domestic and commercial customers for which it has designed and installed ground and air source heat pump systems.

As one of the UK’s longest established renewable heating companies, Finn Geotherm has been helping its heat pump customers apply for this tax-free incentive since it was first introduced in April 2014. The company has kept a log of all the payments it has secured for its domestic and commercial customers and this has now reached a total of £20 million pounds.

Guy Ransom continued:

“Domestic customers can now carry on planning their projects, safe in the knowledge that they will have enough time to apply for the RHI and secure their seven years’ worth of payments. We are so pleased to see the Government’s ongoing support of this technology which creates such a dramatic reduction in carbon emissions and energy bills.”

For more information on heat pumps for domestic heating and hot water, click here or contact us if you’d like to have a chat about the RHI.

13th March 2020