Heat pump industry leader accuses Renewable Heat Incentive of biasing the market against heat pumps
The government is facing a threat of legal action over one of its major green construction policies after heat pump installers and manufacturers claimed it has damaged their industry
The Ground Source Heat Pump Association has threatened to seek an injunction against the Renewable Heat Incentive unless the government makes a number of key changes to the scheme.
The Renewable Heat Incentive launched in November 2011 and pays building owners who install renewable heat generating technologies for each kWh of heat they generate. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is currently consulting on plans to extend the scheme, which currently only serves the commercial property market, to domestic properties and bring new technologies into the commercial scheme.
But speaking to 星空传媒 the chair of the Ground Source Heat Pump Association (GSHPA), Brian Kennelly, said the current structure of the scheme biased the market in favour of biomass boilers to the detriment of heat pumps.
He said: 鈥淏efore the RHI was in place we had a growing market鈥� The industry is a quarter the size it was in 2008.鈥�
鈥淭hey are absolutely killing off an area of green growth,鈥� he added.