The plan was to introduce the necessary changes to legislation to do this to Parliament in the New Year so that it would come into operation in ‘the Spring’. Ofgem and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy informed us that once the legislation was through Parliament it would be implemented the next day! Obviously the basic idea and its implementation was not something we liked both because of its immediate effect and large impact on our clients, and because of the long-term, adverse impact on the reduction of CO2 emissions. One kilogram of CO2 from a large house has the same impact on the planet as one kilogram of CO2 from a small one.
At the end of March, the Government announced that they still did not know the deadline, but it would probably be in mid-May, and we would still have one day’s notice of its implementation.
Then the general election was called. One of the consequences of an election is that all unfinished Parliamentary business is lost when Parliament is dissolved. The legislation for the RHI changes was a casualty of the election and so the deadline has gone away – at least for now.
However, depending on the outcome of the election, we can expect that the changes are likely to be reintroduced to Parliament, possibly in June. They are very unlikely to become law until after the summer recess, sometime in September or October. Sadly the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy are unable or unwilling to give us any better guidance than, ‘when it is passed by Parliament it will come into force directly.’
We and other renewable energy companies have been in a frustrating limbo since plans were initially announced to adapt the RHI. The industry as a whole is expected to attract investment into renewable energy and help the UK meet its legally binding carbon targets. To do this we need stable policy based on good strategic decision making. We sincerely hope the next Government will provide this to allow sustainable businesses to get on with the job of reducing climate change.
The up side of this series of unfortunate events is that there is time and opportunity to install some more systems before we expect the RHI cap to come into force. If you have a renewable energy project in mind at the moment, now is the time to act so you can benefit from the current higher return on investment whilst you can.
