Solar PV Project

We have had at least two supporters who have had problems with their inverters and who did not realise their PV production was abnormal. Please take a look at this article on how to monitor your system's performance. Solarsense have now fixed the problems.

The Feed-in Tariff has now fallen to 16p per KWH. However you can still obtain a whopping 10% tax free index linked return on your investment in PV by buying a solar panel system through our scheme. Go to our Solar Project page for the latest information.

Wind Turbines - What do you think?

There has been a lot of opposition to local wind turbine planning applications recently and Sustainable Crediton has been asked from time to time for its opinion either in general or in respect of individual planning applications. The Energy Group in general is supportive of wind turbines and is going to visit a major wind farm soon to witness at close hand some of the issues such as noise, flicker etc before we reach any firm conclusions.

In the meantime we would be interested in hearing your views/concerns about wind turbines.

We will be writing short articles on Wind Turbine myths each month. The first one has just been published.

Would you like Subsidised Renewable Heating?

We are looking for expressions of interest from people who might like to install renewable heating in their homes as part of a potential new project :- The Sustainable Crediton Warm Homes Project.

Please read on and if you are interested please contact either Linda or Charles. There is no commitment whatsoever as we envisage our scheme if successful will operate like our Solar Project. Individuals will have to be happy with the deal in front of them and the installer before they sign any contract for work. Vouchers from the Government will be redeemable once the work is completed satisfactorily.

We have entered Stage 1 of the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) Community Scheme (what a mouthfull). The RHPP Community Scheme will support communities to deliver clusters of domestic renewable heating systems.

The RHPP community scheme aims to provide communities with the opportunity to cost-effectively organise local buying groups for renewable heating systems, potentially accessing bulk discounts and facilitating easier deployment for installers.

The Scheme will support installation of renewable heating systems in homes by providing vouchers to householders (of upto 40% of the cost). It is targeted at making renewable heating affordable for middle to low income households and aims to maximise carbon reduction by reaching homes with high carbon heating systems that are expensive to run (especially those off the gas network) and ensuring that heating systems are installed after or alongside energy efficiency measures.

Technologies that are supported under the scheme include:

• Solar thermal panels
• Heat pumps (air to water, ground source or water source but excluding air to air and exhaust air heat pumps)
• Biomass Boilers

We have submitted a Stage 1 application into this bid for a share of £8 million of Government money. If we are successful at Stage 1, then we have to put a Stage 2 bid together explaining how we will organise a community buying group for the above technologies, indicate the number of homes interested in our scheme and details of our deal with our preferred installer.

As we have experience of running a buying group already we are confident we will pass into Stage 2. The Energy Saving Trust will be evaluating Stage 2 bids on a quality and value for money basis and it will remain to be seen if we are successful.