Eight in ten people surveyed as part of a report published by the government support the UK using renewable energy scheme to generate electricity, fuel and heat and save money on their energy bills.

2,107 people were polled in December and January and just four per cent were opposed to using renewable energy.  This number has remained relatively consistent across the previous three surveys conducted by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Solar energy was found to have the highest levels of support, with 82% favoring this type of technology, followed by offshore wind with an approval rating of 72% and wave and tidal arrays with a 71% rating. Read the rest of this entry »

Only half of the grants offered by government to businesses and councils to install renewable heating schemes are being claimed.

One of the main reasons appears to be lack of publicity, but the grant conditions also are claimed to be too tight.

Under the Renewable Heat Incentive, businesses and public sector bodies can claim a subsidy for every unit of power generated from technologies such as Solar water heating panels, biomass boilers and heat pumps, in the same way as can be claimed for renewable electricity under the feed-in tariff scheme. Read the rest of this entry »