Renewable Heat: The Battle to Wake A Sleeping Giant
Leonie Greene, Head of External Affairs, REA.
Determined campaigning means the UK is now on the brink of introducing a comprehensive framework to support rapid growth in renewable heat technologies. The REA’s Head of External Affairs Leonie Greene reflects on REA’s three year campaign in partnership with Friends of the Earth- and with a large supporting cast.
3 years ago the REA and Friends of the Earth first thrashed out an agreement on a Renewable Energy Tariff campaign. The aim was simple and urgent – to deliver policy mechanisms for renewables in areas where the UK was clearly failing and where Government was not showing sufficient political vision for how society could engage with renewables. That meant fighting for a simple user-friendly ‘Feed-In Tariff’ for renewable power technologies that everyday people, businesses and communities could invest in. Compared to the continent technologies like solar, community wind and micro-hydro were barely visible in the UK. This had to be addressed.
And it also meant much needed action on renewable heat, which is the biggest use of energy in the UK and responsible for almost half of UK emissions. The draft legislation drawn up by Friends of the Earth and REA for the campaign proposed something similar to a
Minster Greg Barker meeting Hoval at the Bioenergy Conference and Expo
‘Feed-In Tariff’ for heat for two reasons; firstly the long-term stable framework offered by FITs had clearly been very successful at growing the mass-market renewables industry internationally. Secondly, given heat is generated locally, the scheme also needed to be user-friendly and attractive to a very diverse array of potential investors. REA also included a ‘green gas’ Tariff – where biomethane produced from the digestion of organic wastes like animal slurry is injected into the gas grid. Green gas was taking off internationally while the UK seemed barely to have heard of it.
A coalition of over 30 organisations rallied around our Renewable Energy Tariff campaign. Awareness that renewable heat had been overlooked for far too long was a primary driver and attracted support from organisations as diverse as the National Farmers Union, Home Builders Federation, Greenpeace and RIBA as well as social housing providers and fuel poverty groups. There was tremendous cross-party support in Parliament with LibDems and Conservatives arguing strongly for the Renewable Energy Tariff amendment. Pop star Lily Allen emailed all MPs asking them to support the amendment, prompting then Energy Minster Malcolm Wicks to sit up and take note. Government finally realised the determination of Parliament to press for Renewable Energy Tariffs for local power, heat and green gas when Labour MP Alan Simpson organised the biggest backbench of Gordon Brown’s premiereship to date.
Suddenly success looked likely, particularly given equally strong support in the Lords where negotiations around the amendment began with government. REA and Friends of the Earth held an event in the Lords with eco-enthusiast Dick Stawbridge and featuring a model village powered by local renewable technologies, which politicians lined up to be photographed with. The establishment of DECC and the arrival of Ed Miliband as Secretary of State resulted in a much more positive position from Government. By the time the Energy Bill became the 2008 Energy Act the Renewable Energy Tariffs clearly had the support of all parties.
Having secured the legislation, in 2009 the REA worked with over 70 organisations to develop a ‘blueprint’ for how the Renewable Energy Tariffs could work for power, heat and green gas. The ‘blueprint’ was presented to then Energy Minister Mike O’Brien. The Government’s own proposals began with the ‘Feed-In Tariffs’ for renewable power technologies, largely reflecting the REA’s blueprint. When the government proposals were published there was strong criticism from both the LibDem and Conservative frontbench spokespeople that the proposals were not ambitious enough, anticipating just 1.6% of UK power to be supplied by sub 5MW renewable power technologies.
|44| ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
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