DIY power creators eye up a nice earner

Businesses and households will find out on Monday how much money they will make from generating their own electricity under government plans to boost renewable power use.

By Richard TylerPublished: 7:16PM GMT 31 Jan 2010
Those buying and installing solar panels, wind turbines or biomass processing equipment from April will receive a set rate for the electricity they create that is almost three times the current market rate and is guaranteed for 20 years. Any excess electricity can be sold to the grid, again for a set price.
The level at which the tariffs are set is crucial to manufacturers and installers.

While solar, wind turbine, hydro and biomass energy generation companies know that their customers will receive incentives, British-based boiler businesses such as Baxi, Ceres Power and Worcester Bosch, are less certain.
Working through the Combined Heat and Power Association they have lobbied for their next generation boilers, which use gas but generate surplus electricity, to be included within the scheme.
Mark Kelly, Baxi's UK chief executive, has said: "Our plant in Preston is ready to produce 20,000 boilers a year, but without this tariff, they won't be accessible to private householders, because they won't be able to afford it."
The cost of the so-called feed-in tariffs will be shouldered by consumers. The Department for Energy and Climate Change estimates that they will add an average of £10 a year to household bills from 2011.
Campaigners have called for early adopters of the technology to receive double digit returns, echoing the level set in Germany. But the Government is likely to opt for a return within the 5pc to 8pc range, which it believes will be sufficient to meet its target of generating 2pc of the UK's electricity needs from smaller scale renewable power generation by 2020.