May 2006

Funding for Solar Photovoltaics

The DTI's Low carbon buildings programme (LCBP) will provide grants for solar photovoltaics and other microgeneration technologies. These grants can be applied for by householders, community organisations, schools, the public sector and businesses.

The programme will run over three years, starting from 1st April 2006 and replaces DTI's Clear Skies and Solar PV programmes, which closed for applications on the 31st March 2006. The programme is UK wide but excludes the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

There will be two streams of grants available; stream one and stream two.

Stream One Small Projects Grants

Stream one applies to smaller projects for home owners and community groups among others.

Grant Criteria

At the moment the only detailed grant application guidelines to be published are for householders. It should be noted that there are a number of energy efficiency measures that householders must undertake before they are eligible to apply for a grant under the LCBP. These measures are designed to ensure that applicants are minimising their energy requirements:

Minimum loft insulation to meet current building regulations, where practicable - e.g. 270mm of mineral wool.
Installed cavity wall insulation (if applicant has cavity walls).
Using low energy light bulbs in all appropriate light fittings.
Installed basic controls for heating system to include a room thermostat and a programmer or timer.

Other criteria for receiving a grant under stream one householders include the following:

Applicants must be the householder / owners of the property for which the grant is applied for (applicants who have leasehold ownership must have permission of the property freeholder).
Applicants must be resident of, and the installation address situated in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Systems must supply a permanent building (mobile homes, caravans, house boats etc. are not eligible).

For solar photovoltaic projects, stream 1 householders can receive a maximum grant of £3,000 per kWp installed, up to a maximum of £15,000 subject to an overall 50% limit of the installed cost (exclusive of VAT).

There a different grant levels for other microgeneration technologies. A total of £6.5 million is available under the stream one householder funding stream.

Householders can apply for grants right now.

Stream One Community Grants

Stream one community grants will be up to a maximum of £30,000 or 50% of the capital and installation costs. A total of £4 million is available under the stream one community funding stream.

Applicants under this stream will be able to apply by the end of May 2006.

Stream Two

Stream two applies to projects which include businesses, community organisations and the public sector.

Applicants under stream two will unfortunately have to wait until July 2006 for further news. It is hoped that by then State Aid approval will have been received from the European Commission.

What is known is that stream two grants will be subdivided as follows:

Category 1 - for medium-scale projects; grants will be up to a maximum of £100,000 per project. A total of £6 million will be available under this funding stream.
Category 2 - for large-scale projects; grants will be available of up to a maximum £1million per project. A total of £12 million will be available under this funding stream.

The proportion of eligible costs that will be grant funded will be constrained by State Aid requirements but is likely to be up to a maximum of 40% of the design, capital and installation costs. Energy efficiency advice for stream 2, category 2 applicants will be undertaken by the Carbon Trust.

If you would like to be kept informed of the latest news concerning funding for solar photovoltaics for businesses, then contact Nersi Salehi on 01788 538 150.

Other Technologies

As well as solar photovoltaics there are a number of other microgeneration technologies that the LCBP will cover including:

Wind turbines
Small hydro
Solar thermal hot water
Ground/water/air source heat pumps
Bio-energy
Renewable CHP
MicroCHP (Combined heat and power)
Fuel cells

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