Saturday 3 March 2007

Whinge, whinge for microgeneration (PV only)

Well here we are again at the beginning of the month and the PV industry is crying out again for more subsidies. Their argument is with the LCBP grants, which run out within 10 minutes of their availablity every month. What a surprise? The PV industry says it is because the govenrment is providing inadeqaute support for a fantastic technology. Saner members of scoiety probably recognise that if you offer ridiculous subsidies (50%) for a product which is an economic basket case, then there are some who might think they are getting a good deal. Even with this absurd subsidy though, the payback is over 60 years! There are obviously too many nutters in London with too much money and no understanding of life, the universe or anything to realise that this is one of the biggest scams of the 21st century. Rather than whingeing about inadequate amounts of funding, might they not consider why PV gets 50% whilst other technologies get rather less; and if PV got, say 30%, as biomass, would the money run out quite so fast?
An objective observer might also wonder why PV is in quite such a priveleged position; does someone with a major investment in a PV company have a disproportionate influence in government circles; and if so, whose brother is he?

Not such a sad day for micro CHP

The premature revalations of the death of Microgen (post 1st February 2007) have, according to the latest rumours, proved unfounded. Why is it that the doom mongers of micro CHP jump on every opportunity to belittle the benefits or even the mere existence of micro CHP?
According to a number of credible sources, the Microgen micro CHP unit is alive and kicking, through a consortium of Baxi, Remeha and Gas Terra (aka Gasunie). Further rumours indicate that both Baxi and Remeha plan to display their Microgen based miro CHP units at ISH in Frankfurt next week.

Of course micro CHP only delivers electricity at 200g/kWh compared with renewable technologies such as PV at a mere 250g/kWh, so why should any governement really support it?

Wednesday 21 February 2007

10,000 micro CHP units in Netherlands

Popular opinion has always assumed that the UK, Netherlands and Germany would be the major markets for micro CHP. Until now, Germany has led the way in mini-CHP with thousands of Senertec Dachs units installed over the past few years. But those were not micro CHP units as they are not really suitable for individual homes. Then it was the UK with Powergen luanching the Whispergen in 2004. Since then Powergen have been very cautious in their roll out with only a few hundred units installed, waiting perhaps until the regulatory and infrastructure mess sorted itself out.

Now the Dutch seem to be leaping headlong into the fray with an announcement by their three major utilities (Essent, NUON, Eneco) that they intend to install 10,000 micro CHP units by 2009. As the only product really available in Netherlands today is the WhisperGen 1kWe unit, this looks like more good news for them.

Monday 19 February 2007

Subsidy for micro CHP?

I notice that wikipedia mentions the financial incentives available to micro CHP, amongst them the 5% VAT rate applicable to micro CHP installations in existing homes. The standard VAT rate in the UK is 17.5% and the article concludes that this is tanatamount to a 12.5% subsidy for micro CHP. What the article fails to point out is that most energy efficiency/energy saving devices are rated at 5% for VAT purposes as this is the rate of VAT on energy. It would be perverse to charge 5% on energy use and 17.5% on energy saving; that is why energy saving and energy use are charged at the same rate. It is not a subsidy, just common sense.
Indeed micro CHP continues to be treated as something of a Cinderella of the micorgeneration industry. It has been excluded from the UK Government's LCBP phase 2 and, whilst eligible for phase 1, they have yet to start the accreditation process, so it is impossible to actually get any funding. In fact, the government has failed even to state what level of support would be available if they ever get the accreditation process off the ground; makes you wonder just how serious they are in their support for the technology. In the meantime the solar industry is gobbling up every penny going. Let's hope that they see sense when it comes to phase 3 and provide some credible support for micro CHP.

Saturday 10 February 2007

Getting our priorities right

The House of Commons Trade & Industry Committe has published its report (Local Energy -Turning consumers into producers) and decided to promote the term "local energy" instead of "microgeneration".

I am sure this will make all the difference to the uptake of micro CHP and of reinforcing consumer confidence; it would probably help to establish consumer confidence rather more if the Government was seen to be supporting relevant microgeneration technologies which could actually make a difference to the UK rather than just chucking money down a bottomless pit. The LCBP is being bled dry by the solar industry with little prospect of any significant reduction in cost (as was the intention) as a result.

George Monbiot rightly criticises the microgeneration industry for overyhyping the potential of micro wind and PV; unfortunately, he throws out the baby with the bathwater. There are at least two microgeneration technologies which could make a real difference to our energy efiicnecy and carbon impact. For gas-heated homes, micro CHP can reduce carbon by around 15% (typically 1-1.5 tonnes per year per household), and for homes which do not have gas, GSHP (Ground Source Heat Pumps) can reduce carbon by 4 tonnes or more, depending which fuel is being displaced. The problem with promoting technologies with dubious environmental credentials (like PV) is that the public (and commentators like George) lose confidence and assume that all microgeneration is a scam.

Wednesday 7 February 2007

Powergen/E.ON is clearly still in the micro CHP game

The rumours of Powergen (the retail energy supply business of E.ON UK plc) deciding to abandon micro CHP are clearly way out of line. At today's Micro CHP summit arranged by Delta Energy, 10% of the delegates were E.ON Group employees. Either they have nothing better to do or they are still actively interested in the technology!

Other good news from the summit is that Microgen may be dead, but Microgen 2 is about to emerge phoenix-like from the ashes and, as rumours abound, there are more micro CHP players out there than you can shake a stick at. Fuel cells, Rankine engines, Stirling engines and IC engines all have contenders, leading towards the ideal scenario where there is a product suitable for every part of the market.

Sunday 4 February 2007

Rumours, rumours

Last week the Sunday Times (or was it the FT) reported that Powergen was probably involved in a partnership with CFCL. Why? Because an ex-Powergen employee was on the Board of CFCL! This week the speculation continues with the rumour that Powergen has abandoned its relationship with WhisperGen, the New Zealand Stirling engine micro CHP developer. Where do they get this stuff?! According to Powergen, everything is going just fine with their micro CHP plans and they are continuing their commercial roll-out with housing developers and social housing providers.

They are also upping their game with a wider move into microgeneration as one of the two energy companies awarded contracts under the UK Government's Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) to supply biomass boilers, heat pumps and mini wind turbines to public sector buildings including social housing. The DTI is providing grant support up to 50% under the scheme. If phase 1 of the programme is anything to go by, the money (all £50 million) probably won't last long.

Thursday 1 February 2007

Great news for Ceramic Fuel Cells

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL) seem to be making great progress, not only with their technology, but also with partnerships with various energy companies (seen as a key route to market) and boiler manufacturers. Deals have just been announced in France and Germany; other key markets would be UK and Netherlands.

CFCL were initially set up in Australia to develop utility scale SOFC products, but have recently moved into the domestic CHP market and have set up a base in the UK.

CFCL have supplied demonstration versions of their Netgen micro CHP package to energy utilities in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and France.

A number of potential configurations are possible although it is likely that the requirement to operate continuously may mean that it will operate to meet baseload thermal demand with a supplementary burner to meet variable heat requirements.

Its ability to internally reform fuel supplied at normal pressures minimises parasitic losses and makes this potentially one of the most efficient micro CHP units of all in electrical terms.

For more information on micro CHP and fuel cells click here.

Sad day for micro CHP

According to ACE (Association for the Conservation of Energy), BG Group has decided to wind up their Microgen project. Microgen was one of the leading contenders for the UK micro CHP market: I would be surprised if no-one stepped in to pick up the pieces and relaunch, as the Microgen unit seemed to be one of the more technically advanced units. In the meantime, at least Whispergen with their 1kW unit and Energetix Genlec are still out there, with a number of others set to enter the market at a later date.

For more information on micro CHP click here.