[Stoves] Wood pellet subsidy in the UK

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Andrew

I had not heard about this scheme before.

>The commercial scheme has lead to some  spurious schemes that are kept running for the payments . In England the domestic scheme is capped at 1300 hours per year use (payments are also linked to a heat meter. When they drafted the Northern Ireland scheme they forgot the cap so some people have tken unfair advantage to maximise payments.

I found the piece below from the BBC. Is this for wood pellets only? One effect will be the establishment of a supply chain that can be geared to domestic heating at a future time.

Subsidy fraud is nothing new of course. Last year, 90% of the hybrid electric cars sold in Shanghai never visited a charging station in the following year. They were sold on paper, if at all. The manufacturers are getting the subsidy, not the customer. On the stove front, the homeowners in Hebei are given the subsidy, as in Ulaanbaatar, one per home. People do get the stove even if they don't use it. Other tactics are used to prevent that, like removing the old stove and crushing it. 

Regards
Crispin


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The green scheme was set up by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment under the stewardship of now First Minister Arlene Foster in 2012 to encourage businesses and other non-domestic users to move from using fossil fuels to renewable heating systems.


In what has been dubbed the “cash-for-ash” scandal, the flawed scheme meant users could legitimately earn more cash the more fuel they burned.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the DfE said: “In regard to the cost of the RHI scheme, the Comptroller & Auditor General’s report estimated the 20-year costs of the scheme, if nothing is done, to be £1,150m.

“C&AG stated this involves ‘a number of uncertainties’ and represents ‘the best estimate of the worst case’.

“Based on a forecasted 3% Barnett share of the allocation for the GB scheme, the projected available budget is £660m. Based on those published figures, the maximum burden on the Northern Ireland budget would be £490m. “

The spokesperson said the department had been developing proposals for changes to RHI which, if accepted, could lead to a significant reduction in future costs to the NI Executive. The detailed discussion included legal advice and engagement with the European Commission.

Earlier, Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir claimed the cost could be “the best part of £600m”. He told BBC Radio Ulster that hundreds of people were “using heat in an ineligible way”.

“Anyone heating an empty shed has been stealing public money,” he added.

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