Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)
What is the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)?
The Renewable Heat Incentive is a UK Government ‘cashback’ scheme that offers consumers and businesses financial incentives to switch to renewable forms of heating such as wood pellets.
The Government has guaranteed £860 million of financial support for its first four years of operation.
As a major UK wood pellet manufacturer and supplier, Verdo Renewables are set to support significant growth in the modern wood heating sector, including supporting boiler financing.
Who Qualifies?
The RHI for wood pellet heating is available for domestic, commercial and industrial scale boilers.
When is RHI available?
RHI applications from industrial, commercial, public sector and not-for-profit and community installations can be submitted from Monday 28 November 2011.
Boilers installed since July 2009 will also be eligible to receive cashback payments from that date but payments will not be retrospective, i.e. payments will only be made from November 2011 onwards.
Long term tariffs for domestic biomass boilers, up to 45kW, are not yet known but will be introduced in 2012. An interim Premium RHI payment of £950 will be made for each boiler.
Details of the RHI Scheme
Tariffs are available at different levels depending on the size of the boilers and will be payable for 20 years.
There are three non-domestic tariff levels:
- Up to 199kW
- 200 kW – 999kW
- Above 1000kW
For boilers up to 999kW, the tariff levels are based on a two-tier payment structure: tier 1 payments for up to 1,314 peak load hours of operation (15% annual heat load) and tier 2 payments for operational hours above this.
For boiler capacities of 1,000kW and above there is a single tariff level.
The tariffs are as follows:
| Tariff Name | Eligible Sizes | Tariff Rate (p/kWhr) | Tariff Duration (Years) |
| Small Biomass | Up to 199kW | Tier 1: 8.3p | 20 |
| Tier 2: 2.1p | |||
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| Medium Biomass | 200kW – 999kW | Tier 1: 5.1p | 20 |
| Tier 2: 2.1p | |||
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| Large Biomass | 1,000kW and above | 1p | 20 |
For larger boilers above 45kW, the cashback will be paid quarterly on the basis of a Heat Meter reading.
Key criteria:
- All boilers installed under 45kW must be certified under the Microgeneration Certified Scheme (MCS).
- All boiler installers, installing boilers under 45kW, must also be MCS certified.
- All commercial boilers who wish to receive cashback payments need a recognized Heat Meter.
