Green energy package for homes revealed

By Fiona Harvey and Rebecca Bream
Published: February 13 2009 02:03

All homes in the UK will have near to zero carbon emissions in 40 years, the government pledged on Thursday, under a new draft heat and energy-saving strategy that will require a massive increase in home insulation.
Ed Miliband, secretary of state for energy and climate change, said cavity wall and roof insulation would be provided to all properties by 2015, requiring 400,000 households a year to be fitted.

This would create thousands of jobs, especially in the construction industry, which has been one of the hardest hit by the recession.
But several companies said the plan failed to address their needs for combined heat and power plants, which generate electricity and use the resulting heat in local buildings. They can provide many benefits for industry, but few companies have them at present and the current low energy prices provide little incentive for their installation without government help.
Eon, the energy supplier, and Greenpeace, the environmental group, formed a rare alliance on Thursday to urge the government to do more to encourage companies to install such plants.
Graham Meeks, director of the Combined Heat and Power Association, said 20 per cent of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions came from the use of heat in industry. “Nothing is being proposed by the government to address this,” he said. “Heat is a huge part of costs and if you could reduce this use you could help to save many more jobs.”
Mr Miliband on Thursday said wasted electricity and heat were costing families about £300 ($429) a year, and that a quarter of the UK’s total emissions came from homes.
Under the government’s plan, by 2030 home improvements that saved heat and electricity would be available to every home in the country. Householders will receive help with the cost of efficiency measures, and could sell any electricity they generated back to the grid.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009