Thomas Edison 1931
Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)
Domestic solar hot water installations and the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)
From a domestic point of view, the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) will not come into operation until the end of this year (2012) and will coincide with the introduction of the green deal.
There is a renewable heat premium payment (RHPP) from July 2011 which is a pilot scheme to gauge the interest and up take of the scheme. This has recently been extended, so if you are thinking about solar thermal this is a good time to install it as you will recieve £300 from the RHPP and the installation will then also benefit from the RHI when it comes into effect.
The Renewable Heat Incentive from the outset will be focused on the Community and Commerce and the tariff for solar thermal is as follows:-
| Technology | Eligible size | Tariff rate (kWh) | Tariff duration (years) | Support calculation |
| Solar thermal | Less than 200kWth | 8.5 | 20 | Metering |
As yet we are unsure as to the exact tariff for domestic but will update this site as we find out.
RHI Key points
- Funded from general govt spending.
- Roll out in 2 phases.
- Provides a fixed payment for each kWth of heat produced
- Installations require meter
- Payments made quarterly
- Focuses on many technologies
- Solar thermal return based on repayment of capital cost
- Payments can’t be assigned as with FIT. Owner receives payment
- Definition of owner ambiguous
- Payments for 20 years
Phase 1
- Phase 1 July 2011 but back dated to July 2009
- Mainly non domestic
- Small domestic pilot scheme(£15m)
Phase 2
- 2012 will be available to domestic installations
- Won’t be subject to review
- May not be implemented in current proposed form
For full details of the Renewable Heat Incentive please see the Government paper by clicking here.
