Widespread lack of awareness of renewables

The Renewable Heat Report found a ‘widespread lack of awareness’ of renewables in the UK. A survey revealed that nearly all respondents believe it is important to improve the energy efficiency in their home, however most have focused on relatively small measures such as energy efficient light bulbs and double glazing in their homes, with very few having looked at switching to a renewable heating solution.

A key finding was that 84% of respondents didn’t know that heat pumps are a potential renewable heating solution, while 74% don’t regard biomass as a green form of home heating.

Many respondents said that they believed that switching to renewables was expensive, they were difficult to install or even possibly bad for the environment.

The Government will launch the domestic phase of the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme (RHI) this spring, yet according to the report, it has set aside only enough funds to for a tiny number of homes to convert their fossil fuel systems.

“The UK is poised for a heating revolution,” says Silvio Spiess, CEO of Innasol. “Yet according to the report’s survey, the main reason UK residents are missing out on these renewable heating financial incentives is due to a lack of awareness of the technologies available and a lack of understanding of their benefits.”

According to Jonathan Robinson from Frost & Sullivan, renewable heating is the fastest growing area within the renewable energy industry. In 2010/11 it was worth £12.5 billion, growing at eight times the rate of UK economy.

DECC recently estimated that an additional 750,000 renewable heating systems need to be installed by 2020 to help the UK meet its 2020 carbon targets.