The government has withdrawn £10m of additional funding set aside for developing community heating systems. The announcement was made in the revised Climate Change Programme report, where it was announced that DEFRA would not be extending its Community Energy Programme.

The £50m programme, set up in 2002 to deliver decentralised energy schemes and heat networks, was the government's key initiative to encourage the take-up of CHP. In December 2004, DEFRA announced an extra £10m to extend the programme.

DEFRA says the decision not to go ahead is down to the lack of cost effectiveness of the programme to deliver carbon savings, as well as the fact that many larger schemes could not complete before the 2007 deadline.

Phil Piddington, director of the Combined Heat and Power Association, says the decision is deeply disappointing: "The Energy Saving Trust has identified that projects supported by the programme to date have helped save more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon every year".

Phil Jones, chairman of CIBSE's CHP Group, commented that CHP offered paybacks of 5-10 years, but that schemes take time to plan and install and the government needs to be more realistic.

Source

Building Sustainable Design