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Government proposals could see less refurb and more newbuild |
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6 Sep 2012, 8:31 PM
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Energy companies may need to undertake up to 35% more energy efficiency work to meet their Energy Company Obligation targets as a result of proposals set out by the government this week.
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Energy companies may need to undertake up to 35% more energy efficiency work to meet their Energy Company Obligation targets as a result of proposals set out by the government this week. The ratings of products could be downgraded by up to 35%, meaning energy firms will have to do up to a third more retrofit work to meet their obligations.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has said it plans to downgrade the energy savings attributed to energy saving products, such as cavity wall insulations and loft insulations, when calculating the overall carbon savings from building projects under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, which comes into effect in January 2013.
The move to downgrade the ratings is aimed at accounting for the drop in performance of energy saving measures in actual homes when compared with test labs - referred to as the “performance gap”. These downgraded ratings are already used under current energy saving programmes the Carbon Emission Reduction Target and Community Energy Savings Programme.
Under the ECO energy companies will be required to undertake a set amount of energy efficiency work each year. Work they undertake is given a credit based on its calculated carbon savings, which adds towards their overall target.
If firms do not meet their ECO obligations they can be fined by the regulator Ofgem. Under the proposals, each energy efficiency installation will earn energy companies less credit towards their total obligation than the officially stated rating for each building product –which is usually assessed by the product manufacturers.
Meanwhile, moves to relax planning rules could see less regulations concerning extensions and more new homes being built. Neil Jefferson, Customer and Business Development Director at NHBC said:
"We are encouraged by today's statement from the Government committing to the building and financing of new homes, as this again underlines that boosting the housing sector is key to economic growth. We hope that this stimulus will have a tangible and lasting effect, increasing the number of new homes available across all tenures by enabling the development of both new and currently stalled sites.
"Recent house building levels have been worryingly low and well below housing need, which has been shown in our statistics for both the private and public sectors, with our latest registration figures revealing a 21% decrease across all sectors for May – July compared to the same three month period last year.
"NHBC Foundation research has shown that new homes require less energy to run than equivalently sized older homes, meaning that they not only have a lesser impact on the environment but their occupants could see annual fuel bills reduced by up to half. Simply put, enabling more people to live in new build homes will benefit both the national economy and individual finances."
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