The Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme for Your Business

Introduced in 2011, the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme sets out to financially reward businesses who take aim to use ‘green’ energy sources.

According to Gov.uk is ‘the world’s first long-term financial support programme for renewable heat’. The scheme for the non-domestic sector offers financial rewards to public sector organisations, businesses and industries.

If your business generates and uses energy from ‘green’ sources to heat the buildings, the RHI will pay out. This is all part of a wider government initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and meet the targets for reducing climate change.

This is a really simple way to encourage businesses of all shapes and sizes to take their carbon footprint more seriously and is one of the best renewable heat incentives for businesses. Here we will take a quick look at what you can expect to get, and how to check if your business is eligible to take part in the scheme:

Overview of the scheme

There are a number of types of heating covered by the RHI scheme including:

• Biomass
• Ground and water source heat pumps
• Geothermal
• Solar thermal collectors
• Biomethane and biogas

Payments are spread over a duration of 20 years, and you can expect to receive a payment every three months.  The amount you will be eligible will depend on how much energy you actually use, the capacity of the energy installation, and the type of technology you use.

The financial rewards will vary on these, and a number of other factors so it is worth doing your research before you commit to anything. You will also need to identify if your business, is in fact, eligible for the RHI scheme.

Eligibility

There are a number of factors the government will look at in determining whether or not your business is eligible to join the scheme. For example, your equipment must be installed on or after 15^th July 2009. You are also only eligible if your business is based in England, Scotland, or Wales.

You must also have purchased the equipment yourself; the guidelines say you can’t have used any public grant to buy, partially buy, or install the equipment. It must also be new and of a certain size, and use liquid or steam to deliver the heat to the building.

There are a number of other rules and regulations including:

• Should you use biomass boilers, they must only be able to burn biomass
• Ground and water source heat pumps must have a ‘coefficient of performance’ at least 2.9

You can find out more information on these guidelines and discover how to apply via the Ofgem website.

What this means for your business

Every business is looking to make a conscious effort to ‘go green’, especially in 2013. By committing to the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme, you can do your bit for the planet and be financially rewarded for doing so.

As long as you reinvest this reward into your company’s ‘green’ plan, you will be well on your way to reducing your business’s carbon footprint.

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