The government’s small-scale renewable energy funding scheme ran out of its monthly grant allocation less than 12 hours after it opened in February.

The Low Carbon Buildings Programme is designed to boost the installation of renewables in residential buildings. It previously ran into trouble when, six months after it was launched, funds ran out. Grants are now allocated on a month-by-month basis, but customers were unable to access online applications after 11.45 am on 1 February.

David Matthews, national executive officer of the Solar Trade Association and the Ground Source Heat Pump Association says, “The STA and GSHPA are at a loss to understand how a government that makes so much of the urgent need to minimise the effects of global warming can let a situation such as this develop.

“For the sake of the planet, I can only hope that public disappointment does not lead to a general discarding of the whole idea of changing to renewables.”

Source

Building Sustainable Design