Energy efficiency

Latest

Heat pump training grants to tackle skills shortage

The government is offering heating engineers grants to become qualified heat pump installers. In total, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has set aside £5 million for its Heat Training Grant scheme. It comes after warnings that a skills shortage risks jeopardising the rollout.

1 year ago

Broadening of industrial energy saving scheme mooted

Firms benefiting from the government’s flagship industrial decarbonisation scheme could be broadened out to include new sectors such as horticulture. The changes will feed into the third phase of the IETF, which provides grants to industries wanting to reduce their carbon footprint by investing in more energy efficient equipment.

1 year ago

Utilita backs clustered heat pump installations to drive down costs

1 year ago

Upgrading homes would slash billions off customer bills

A large-scale drive to upgrade the UK’s energy inefficient homes would slash billions off customer bills. Citizens Advice research claims that upgrading 13 million inefficient homes to EPC C by 2030 would save customers £951 per year per household, totalling a combined £23.8 billion.

1 year ago

Call for tax breaks extension for energy saving materials

The government is being urged to provide tax breaks for a wider range of energy saving materials. In a joint letter to the Treasury, the likes of EDF, Ovo and Eon call for tax relief for energy saving materials to be extended for technologies such as batteries, smart thermal stores and home electric vehicle chargers. The technologies on the Energy Saving Materials list are exempt from VAT, but the list has not been updated since 2006.

1 year ago

Energy efficiency and green finance schemes win funding

1 year ago

ECO review launched after warning of ‘unrealistic’ costs

2 years ago

UK’s first geothermal heat network wins funding

A scheme to warm thousands of Cornish homes with heat extracted from rocks more than 5 kilometres below the earth’s surface has been awarded £22 million of government funding. The Langarth deep geothermal heat network – the first of its kind in the UK - is one of seven projects to receive a share of £91 million handed out from the government’s Green Heat Network Fund.

2 years ago

Efficiency fund awards £24m to energy intensive industry

2 years ago

Government stalls long-awaited upgrade of private rentals

2 years ago

Peers back tougher home energy efficiency targets

The House of Lords has backed tough new energy efficiency targets, including that all homes to meet the EPC (energy performance certificate) Band C standard by 2035. Peers voted by 227 votes to 197 to back a Labour amendment setting out the tightening up of minimum energy efficiency standards

2 years ago

Is the latest energy plan fit for purpose?

2 years ago

Lack of new funding dampens GB Insulation Scheme launch

The Energy Company Obligation+ scheme has been rebranded as the Great British Insulation Scheme as part of a raft of energy security and net zero measures announced today (Thursday 30 March). Despite the formation of the insultation-targeted scheme, some have questioned its effectiveness to tackle energy inefficient homes.

2 years ago

Two-year energy efficiency delay could cost tenants £1bn

2 years ago

Every day a greener day

2 years ago

Fivefold increase in grid consents required, NIC warns

The rate at which transmission projects are granted planning consent must increase fivefold in order to deliver the government’s 2035 target to decarbonise the electricity system, the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has warned in its latest annual progress report.

2 years ago

£1.8bn to tackle energy inefficient homes and buildings

The government has announced the allocation of £1.8bn of funding for home heating decarbonisation and energy efficiency upgrades. More than 115,000 homes will receive upgrades following the announcement as well as schools and hospitals.

2 years ago

Heat pump stats alleviate cold weather performance fears

2 years ago

Flint’s challenging first year chairing fuel poverty committee

When Caroline Flint was unveiled just over a year ago as the surprise new chair of the government’s Committee on Fuel Poverty (CfP), the invasion of Ukraine was still germinating in Vladimir Putin’s mind. She speaks to Utility Week about the progress made in the last year and the challenges to come.

2 years ago

Weeks left to spend remaining £95m boiler upgrade funding

Almost two-thirds of the £150 million boiler upgrade scheme (BUS) funding risks being lost at the end of this month. The remaining amount far outweighs the £43.6 million of BUS vouchers redeemed since the scheme was established in April last year. Any money left in the fund will be returned to government at the end of the month.

2 years ago