Please sign up and support now. Text EARTH to 88008. Texts cost £1 plus standard network rate. Or go to www.wwf.org.uk/earthhour.

Last year on Saturday 28 March at 8.30pm local time, the world switched off its lights for an hour.

It was the biggest call for international action on climate change ever seen, and it was called Earth Hour – organised by the international conservation charity WWF.

And nearly 1 billion people joined in, signed up and switched off.

Now in its forth year, Earth Hour 2010 is taking place on Saturday 27 March at 8.30pm, and it needs to be even bigger. After the disappointing lack of commitment in Copenhagen last December, Earth Hour is our chance to show we’ve not given up.

Getting the attention of world leaders is never going to be an easy task, but Earth Hour is becoming impossible to ignore. So far, 579 cities and towns have signed up in 77 countries. And the list of iconic landmarks that will be plunged into darkness is growing longer and more impressive by the day.

The Las Vegas strip, the Grand Palace in Bangkok, the Empire State building, the Pyramids of Giza, the Acropolis, Tapei 101 tower in Taiwan and the London Eye are just some of over 1000 monuments and buildings across the globe that will be switching off.

Earth Hour is a huge act of global unity. Its success is based on the fact that every one of us plays a vital role from the comfort of our candle-lit living room. It’s open-source in its purest form. And, through the fabulous and far-reaching power of social media, everyone from individuals to international businesses can support the event and encourage their friends, staff and customers to do the same.

So what do you need to do? Well, very simply, sign up and switch off. And if you have a website, stick a banner ad on it to attract new interest. And if you have a customer database, or a heaving address book, send everyone an email telling them that they have an opportunity to show the world’s leaders that climate change is an issue that won’t go away – too many of us care about the future of our planet, and too many of us demand a commitment from them to find ways of saving it.

It’s not just about switching off – you need to raise your hand too.

When it comes to influencing the people with the power to bring about change, it’s name and numbers that count. That’s why WWF need as many people to register their support as possible – either by texting EARTH to 88008 or by visiting www.wwf.org.uk/earthhour 

Climate change – the issues

Climate change affects the balance of every eco system on the planet – which of course has huge consequences for humans as well as animals.

Increased risks of hurricanes and floods as temperatures and sea levels rise, alongside devastating droughts in other areas of the world – all these things are likely to increase as the effects of climate change take hold.

WWF works with governments, research organisations, local communities, businesses and other NGOs across the world to increase awareness of climate change and influence policy decisions at local and international level.

That’s what Earth Hour is all about.

The polar bear is perhaps the most publicised victim of global warming, as rising temperatures lead to melting sea ice in the Arctic. The polar bear uses the sea ice for hunting and gets most of its food while on the ice during spring and early summer. Due to climate change, the summer sea ice is melting earlier in the year and forming later. So the bears are going without food for longer – which significantly decreases their chance of survival.

But it’s not just the polar bear that’s suffering. It’s estimated that the number of tigers living in the wild could be as few as 3,200. Increased global temperatures are leading to rising sea levels and increased rainfall, submerging large areas of the Bengal tigers’ natural habitat in Bangladesh and forcing them inland and straight into the barrels of the poachers’ guns.

Unless we act now, there is a real possibility that tigers will soon be extinct in the wild. 2010 is the Year of the Tiger – by the next one in 2022 we might be living in a world without tigers.

And then there’s the natural environment. An unbelievable 50% of Borneo’s jungle has been cut down already and one of the main culprits is palm oil, which is found in a large number of everyday products, from biscuits and ice cream to shampoo. In order to meet the demand we have for these products in our supermarkets, the jungle is being cut down.

Deforestation around the globe is responsible for 18% of carbon emissions. And Borneo is home to the orang-utan, and up to half of the world’s orang-utan population has already been lost due to threats such as deforestation.

WWF is already working with producers and suppliers to ensure that palm oil is grown in a sustainable way. Earth Hour is a chance to show your support and demand that these issues are tackled on a global level and climate change is put to the top of the agenda.

How you can help

There are three main ways you can help make Earth Hour 2010 a success. Firstly, you can sign up and switch off. If this means turning off the lights in your house and having a candle-lit supper or game of Monopoly to show you’re support, then that’s great. If it also means being able to turn off company lights, external building lights and influence a major switch off, please do. Of course, if you happen to live in an iconic monument that would create a real media buzz as it plunged into darkness, let WWF know and they’ll come and film you doing it!

Second is to tell everyone you know about Earth Hour and encourage them to do the same. Again, this might be your personal email address book, or it might be your customer database that can be emailed on behalf of WWF to spread the word and tell everyone that you’re signed up.

And thirdly, you could put one of the Earth Hour banner ads on your website, Tweet about it, put an Earth Hour countdown clock on your Facebook page, mention Earth Hour in your blog… For any help with switch offs, banner ads or other creative, contact earthhour@openfundraising.com and they’ll give you exactly what you need to shout about your support even louder.

And the Earth Hour website will keep you updated with celebrity auctions, iconic switch offs, suggestions for what to do when the lights are off, and YouTube clips to show you how much is going on around the world to support Earth Hour 2010.

Sign up, switch off and show your support.

Happy Earth Hour, it’s great to have you on board.

The introduction of the feed-in tariff (known as Clean Energy Cashback scheme) opens a new and exciting era for microgeneration. Here we answer some of the most common questions on the new scheme. If you’ve got any more, please add a comment below and we’ll do our best to answer. The information below refers to domestic installations of less than 50kW. This blog post supplements our main information page on feed-in tariffs which gives all the rates for each technology.

What return on my investment should I expect?
The scheme has been devised to give a 5 to 8% return on investment for “well-sited installations”. Of course, you will only get this good a return if your system performs well, so it is important to measure the wind speed, or solar potential, before going ahead with an installation.

Is it better to export the electricity I produce, or to use it at home?
The aim of the Clean Energy Cashback is to incentivise people to use the electricity they produce at home where possible. The amount you save by not buying electricity from your energy company is significantly more than the sum you get for exporting it. It makes sense to do things that use electricity while your system is generating. So you might do the vacuuming or run the washing machine during the day if you’ve got solar panels, or when the wind is blowing if you’ve got a turbine. The government hopes that by generating your own electricity you will develop a better understanding of energy and become a more efficient electricity user.

Do I have to make my house more energy efficient to qualify for the scheme?
There are no mandatory requirements to do so, but it makes sense to increase the energy efficiency first, as it is generally a more cost effective way of reducing energy bills and carbon pollution. The expectation is that by installing a microgeneration system you will get a much better understanding of how you use electricity, and that will lead to a reduction in your total use. The system is structured to encourage that too – the less you use, the more you can export and earn income on.

What happens if I move house?
With the average family moving house every 7 years or so, and the life of the feed-in tariff at 20 years (10 for CHP, 25 for solar panels), this will happen to a lot of people. The government expects standard property ownership rights to apply to the generating equipment. This means that when a house is sold, the generating equipment and the FiT payment are sold too, and the system administrator must be told of the sale. They expect that the market will decide how much a microgeneration installation will increase the price of a house.

Can I take my solar panels or wind turbine with me, and still claim the Clean Energy Cashback?
No. The scheme is only available on installation of new systems, by an an MCS accredited installer. If you took your equipment with you, reinstalling it would count as a second hand installation, and not be eligible for the Cashback.

Will there be loans available to help with the upfront costs of installing microgeneration equipment?
Although the government is currently piloting five Pay as You Save schemes, it has no plans to introduce “a mechanism for up-front capitalisation of FiT revenues”. It says: “We hope the market will provide the necessary loans or other finance packages to drive the uptake of small-scale technologies”. However, it is possible for owners of generating systems to assign their rights to feed-in tariff payments to others. This is expected to pave the way for a range of ways of financing microgeneration in social housing and new build, and may form the basis of a new type of loans for homeowners.

Am I eligible for the feed-in tariff if I install my own system?
No. To claim FiTs you must use an MCS accredited installer and install MCS accredited products.

Will I have to pay tax on the income I get from the Clean Energy Cashback?
Income for domestic properties generating electricity mainly for their own use will not be taxable income for the purposes of income tax.

Are the payments inflation proof?
Both the generation and the export tariffs will rise annually in line with the retail price index.

How long will I receive the tariff payments for?
25 years if you have photovoltaic (solar) panels; 20 years for hydro, wind and anaerobic digestion; and 10 years for micro-CHP. If you installed your system before 15 July 2009 you will receive payments until 2027.

I’ve heard that the rates “degress” over time. What does this mean?
The theory is that as the market for microgeneration grows the prices of the equipment and installation are expected to go down. As this happens there will be less need for such a large financial incentive and so the rates of the Clean Energy Cashback will go down. Degression is where tariffs for new installations are set at a lower level each year, than they were the previous year. The rate you receive at installation then stays the same for the whole life of the tariff (with annual adjustments in line with the retail price index). Degression will not start until April 2012.

What happens if I add to the capacity of my renewable energy installation?
If you have two different technologies on the same site (ie wind turbines and solar panels) they will be classed as different installations. Multiple installations of the same technology at the same site will be classed as a single installation. Similarly, if you add to an existing installation of the same technology within 12 months it will be treated as an increase in capacity of the same installation.
If you add to a system more than a year after the first part was registered in the Central FiTs Register, it will count as a new station.

I installed my system before the Feed-in Tariff proposals were announced. Am I eligible?
If your system was installed before 15 July 2009, and is accredited under the Renewable Obligation (RO), then you will be automatically transferred onto the Clean Energy Cashback in April 2010 (albeit at the lower 9p generation rate). If you are not accredited under the RO, then you must get accreditation before 31 March 2010 to be eligible. You will continue to receive this support until 2027.

Can I claim the Clean Energy Cashback if I install a refurbished or second-hand system?
No. The reasoning behind this is that the scheme is intended to encourage new entrants into the market, and has been designed on the basis of cost assumptions for new equipment. However, the government aims to keep this under review, and will “consider whether or not there are merits to allowing renovated or refurbished technologies to receive FiTs support in the future, bearing in mind the different cost and the fact that equipment may have received other financial support through its life”.

What is the MCS?
The Microgeneration Certification Scheme is an independent, industry-led, certification scheme for both installers and products. It is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and is adminstered by Gemserv.

Can I opt out of the export tariff and sell my electricity on the market?
If you feel up to dealing with the risks of the electricity market you can choose to out of the export tariff. If it doesn’t work for you, you can opt back in – but can only make the change once a year.

Why is the case different for micro-CHP?
This is a new technology, which has the potential in the long run to take over from condensing gas boilers. It is being included in the Clean Energy Cashback scheme as a pilot to provide initial support for the new industry. It is limited to the first 30,000 units (with an electrical capacity of 2kW or less), and will be reviewed after the first 12,000 installations. Recipients of the Clean Energy Cashback for micro-CHP will receive it for 10 years.

Will off-grid generators qualify for feed-in tariffs?
Yes, you will receive the generation tariff. To do so, you will have to declare that the electricity generated has been used, and must comply with the scheme requirements in relation to metering. You can approach any of the mandatory FiT suppliers (ie the big electricity companies) and they will be obliged to provide your Clean Energy Cashback payments. Voluntary FiT suppliers (ie the smaller energy companies) may also agree to provide FiT payments to off-grid generators.
Eligibility for off-grid remote communities will be considered at future reviews of the scheme.

Which suppliers can I export my electricity to?
All suppliers with a minimum of 50,000 customers will be obliged to accept microgeneration customers. They are described as mandatory suppliers. Smaller specialist suppliers can.

First published on the YouGen.

YouGen is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN!

It’s a bit of a conundrum this environment malarkey. We know that we are harming the environment as a race but find it so difficult to change our behaviour as individuals.

I think that the majority of us can agree that we humans are contributing to the decline of our natural environment. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is in no doubt that man has been and is a major causal effect of Global Warming. And they ought to know – they consult some of the brainiest boffins from around the globe.

We are consuming finite resources at an ever increasing rate and clearly don’t balance the books in terms of the energy we use now and the energy that is available in the long term to support us. It’s like we are withdrawing money from the bank faster than we are putting it in. Eventually the money runs out and it has to stop. Spot any similarities with another major global crisis of the moment?

As with any emotive and important issue, there are extremes of opinion. In terms of the Environment debate you have got one extreme extolling the virtues of the motor car and poo-pooing the “environmentalists” and their arguments. At the other end of the scale are those who are so concerned that they break onto airfields and chain themselves to aeroplanes. That said, the vast majority of us I believe (and that includes me) take a more rounded view.

Yes we can see we are harming the environment. We burn fuel virtually every time we travel, whether it’s the car, bus, train or plane. We burn fuel to heat our water and homes. We burn fuel every time we turn on a light, watch the TV or use a PC. It is very easy to use up energy  – whether it’s electricity, gas, oil or petrol. And it’s not just us as individuals. Business and industry burn fuel as well; just on a much bigger scale!

The problem is it is so easy to use energy, and in today’s society it’s virtually impossible to avoid using it. I am sitting at a PC now that is using electricity. I have got an electric heater on in the office (although a coat as well to be honest – 1 eco-browny point to me then). You will be reading this on your PC screen, probably in a heated house or office, with a light on, and a brew on the go and maybe with the TV still on even though you’re not really watching it. I know it’s true, because I still do it. It’s just too easy and energy is not so expensive (yet) that we have to save every last drop of it.

At the end of the day I don’t believe that the vast majority of us are going to take major steps to change our behaviour and help the environment unless it there is a real benefit to us. Saving energy either has to have a tangible financial benefit or at the very least make us feel good about ourselves.

Maybe the best we can hope for, until finance or imminent disaster forces us to do otherwise, is that each of us “non-extremists” does what we can to save energy. The simple stuff. The stuff that can make us feel good and lower our bills a bit.

The Hard Sell (not) 

To help you do “the simple stuff”, I just happen to sell a few great energy saving products at http://www.ecofreak.co.uk/ my online shop. If  you want to save energy and money and you buy just one thing from us, buy a wireless energy monitor such as the Efergy Elite. It is this that I believe will help to encourage you to start moving towards a greener way of living by making you think about the energy you use on a daily basis. It’s actually very satisfying finding where energy is being wasted and taking steps to reduce it. If you get the bug and want to do more take a look at our information page on how to reduce your energy bills or just browse our eco products.

Save some energy, have some fun, save some money – it feels good!

Ecofreak is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

C Mobile is the Eco Friendly Mobile Company for people who want an alternative mobile provider to help them live a brighter green life. So what makes our mobiles phone bundles eco-friendly?

We donate £1 per month of our commission from every contract phone to the Natural Energy Trust.  The Trust aims to help your local community produce its own renewable energy from the elements, whatever works best:

• Solar power on the roof of your sports club, school or community hall
• Putting a turbine in an old watermill
• Geothermal heating
• Small wind turbine

As well as the regular mobile charger we package all our handsets with a FREE Solar charged energy pack to ensure our mobiles can be charged off grid as much as possible.  Place it in the window to catch the sun during the day, use the free stored energy to charge your phone at night.

Recycling your mobile is also part of our process!  Every box we send out comes with a recycling freepost label so you can use the box your new phone comes in to return unwanted old mobiles.  You can take the cash or choose to donate it to the Natural Energy Trust.  Our recycling partner ensures the maximum re-use of handsets and monitors the extraction of materials where suitable and where not.

Visit us at www.cmobile.co.uk, to see how your new mobile can make the difference.

C Mobile is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Ethical Junction member, YouGen, has been shortlisted for the Green Web Awards. The winner will be decided by public vote.

We aim to make it simple for people to find out which (if any) renewable energy is suitable for their home, and then to find a local supplier they can trust to install it. We’re still very new – the full site only went live in April this year, so it’s very exciting to be shortlisted. It feels a bit David and Goliath as one of the other sites in our category is The Guardian’s Ethical Living site.

The inspiration for the site came when we were renovating our house a few years ago. I did a lot of research into biomass boilers, but when it came to deciding whether or not to go ahead I was faced with quotes that differed by £5,000, and no way of telling how the products or installers compared. We played safe and stuck got an efficient condensing gas boiler, but the idea for YouGen was sparked.

While there is now more help available, it is still very difficult for homeowners to know whether they are getting a good deal. Recently published research from Oxford University found that prices for wood-fuelled boilers varied from just over £3,000 to £16,000, and solar hot water systems prices varied from £1,000 to £8,0001.

YouGen helps people to choose a good installer by inviting people who have already used them to rate their service on the website. In such a new market, it’s often not possible to ask a friend or colleague for recommendations.

YouGen aims to plug that gap and help people to choose a supplier by encouraging people to come to the site and rate their installer. We enter everyone who does into a draw each month to win a GEO Minim Home Energy Hub.

Voting for the Green Energy Awards is open until 31 December 2009. If you like what we offer at YouGen, please vote for us!

Cathy Debenham
cathy@yougen.co.uk
www.yougen.co.uk

YouGen is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

YouGen is calling on people who already generate renewable energy in their home to share their experience so others can learn from it. As a reward, everyone who rates their their supplier on the website will be entered into a monthly draw to win a GEO Minim Home Energy Hub.

“Prices for renewable energy installations such as biomass boilers or solar hot water panels vary enormously,” said YouGen founder Cathy Debenham. “ I know from experience that it’s really difficult to evaluate quotes that can vary by over £10,000. Many people give up and stay with conventional products.

“Most people who have installed renewable energy at home have a story to tell. The YouGen website aims to capture what they’ve learned to make it easier for the next wave of microgenerators. At the heart of the site is the ability to rate your installer, so people new to the market can find one they can trust.”

The need for a service such as this has just been confirmed by research from Oxford University (http://bit.ly/5yFYHg) which shows prices for wood-fuelled boilers varying from just over £3k to £16.5k, and solar hot water systems prices varying from £1,000 to £8,000.

From December 2008 YouGen will enter everyone who rates their installer / supplier on the site into a draw at the end of each month. The winner will be sent a GEO Minim Home Energy Hub worth £39.50.

“We’re delighted to be able to offer a Minim as the prize in our monthly draw,” added Cathy. “One of the difficulties that most of us have with our energy use is that we don’t understand it. We chose to work with GEO as their energy meter was found the most effective and easy to use in recent research by the Centre for Sustainable Energy.”

“The Minim Home Energy Monitor makes energy relevant to you,” said James Rankin, marketing and UK sales manager at Green Energy Options. “It makes energy visible by showing you, in a snapshot, how much electricity you are using currently and over time, and it displays this in an easy to understand way. It will also indicate when you are using more electricity than normal alerting you to potential wastage so that you can take action to stop it. The Minim uses a ‘speedometer’ to indicate how much electricity is being used as well as showing consumption in £’s, KG’s of carbon and kWh’s.”

Rating a supplier on YouGen is quick and easy. Companies are scored out of five in five categories: service, product knowledge, explanation of how to use the product, value for money and whether the product meets expectations.  They can add comments and are asked if they would use the company again.

“In such a new market, it’s often not possible to ask a friend or colleague for recommendations,” said Cathy Debenham. “Recommendations on YouGen aim to plug that gap, and help people to choose their supplier.”

YouGen is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Ed Balls has urged schools in England to save energy by turning the heating down and lights off to save up to £750m to safeguard teaching jobs. If he has spoken to his cabinet counterpart Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, two objectives could have resolved.

The subtle reasoning to get schools to save £750m is the educational budgets are being reduced by £750m. If you achieve the first objective you maintain the status quo. If you fail your budget is reduced. Ouch either way!

There are schemes overseas which provide schools with more positive help. In Australia the government provides an AUS$ 50,000 grant towards installing a solar energy system in schools. This has five objectives:

1. Educational benefits in understanding renewable energy in science and maths with the system performance seen on a large digital display.
2. Cost reduction in energy used offset by the solar panels.
3. Opportunity to sell the excess energy generated back to the national grid during summer holidays.
4. Science and maths experiments in adjusting the angle of incidence of the sun and monitoring output and power curves.
5. Lastly, and critically the most significant. It introduces children to the concept of renewal energy. They are great at promoting green energy to parents, and of course will inherit the mess we have created so far. Learning in disguise, it’s what education is all about

What a missed educational opportunity by the Schools secretary. Joined up education that could have given a great incentive to schools and inevitably funded by the power and solar industry.

Keen 2 Learn is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

The time has never been better for investing in renewable energy for your home. Until now it has mainly been the preserve of the wealthy or the committed green. Now, thanks to government plans to radically lower carbon emissions, renewable energy is a more attractive investment.

A financial incentive to encourage investment in renewable energy (known as a feed-in tariff or Clean Energy Cashback) will be introduced for electricity generation in April 2010. Germany, Spain and many other European countries have had such a scheme for some time, and it has transformed the take up of small scale energy generation.

The proposals have opened up a six month window of opportunity for people who invest in solar electricity, a wind turbine or a micro hydro scheme. If you install now, you will automatically receive the Clean Energy Cashback when it starts in April next year. You will also be able to apply for a Low Carbon Buildings Programme grant of up to £2,500, to help with the cost of installation. The grants will end when the feed-in tariff starts.
The Clean Energy Cashback will work in three ways.

• A generation tariff is paid for all electricity generated. This is likely to be 36.5p a kWh for a domestic solar system, 30.5p a kWh for the smallest wind turbines, and 23p a unit for slightly bigger turbines.
• An export tariff of 5p is paid for all electricity sold to the grid.
• You also benefit from smaller electricity bills by using electricity you have generated in your home.

The following calculations for ‘typical’ solar and wind installations show how it works:

Solar photovoltaic panels (PV)
An average size (2 kWp) system installed in southern England, producing 1,800 kWh a year, of which half is used in the home, and half is exported. (As you move further north, the system would generate less.)

Generation tariff @ 36.5p per kWh £657
Export tariff @ 5p per kWh £45
Savings on electricity bill @ 12p per kWh £108
Total annual return £810

The cost of installation would be around £10,000, giving an 8% return for the 20 years of the Clean Energy Cashback. If installed with a grant before April next year, the installation cost would drop to £7,500, increasing the return to a little over 10%. This would give a payback time of just over nine years with the grant, or 12 years without.

Wind turbine
A 6 kW Proven wind turbine has an estimated annual output of 6,000 – 12,000 kWh at an ideal site, and an average wind speed of 5 metres per second. This calculation assumes an output of 9,000kWh, of which 3,000kWh is used in the home.

Generation tariff @ 23p per kWh £2,070
Export tariff @ 5p per kWh £300
Savings on electricity bill @ 12p per kWh £360
Total annual return £2,730

The cost of installation would be around £25,000, giving a rate of return of just under 11%, and a payback time of nine years. With a grant the rate of return would increase to 12%, and payback in just over eight years.

So, although it’s still expensive, renewable electricity is now a much more attractive proposition. However, it’s not likely to hit the mainstream until there’s an attractive way of financing it. There is a lot of talk of pay as you save schemes, but so far they are mostly just talk. The Scottish Government has put aside £2m to pilot an interest free loan scheme, the UK Government is planning a pay a you save scheme, where you pay off a loan over a 25 year period from savings in energy bills. The leader in this area is Kirklees Borough Council’s RE-Charge scheme, where you can borrow £10,000, interest free, and pay it back when you sell your house.

Even if you have the cash ready to invest, microgeneration isn’t for everyone. Wind only makes sense if you’ve got a good site. You need average wind speeds of at least 5 or 6 metres a second, and no trees, buildings, hills or other obstacles that might cause turbulence. If not, you’re better off keeping your money in the bank. The only way to be certain is to measure the wind speed before you invest.

Solar PV is suitable for many more people, and can be used in built up areas. Most people put panels on their roof. For it to be effective you need unshaded space, facing between south west and south east. The panels are quite heavy, so your roof must be strong enough to hold them.

Like wind, micro-hydro is site specific, and most of us don’t have a handy river or stream or old mill we can use.

I’ve only talked about renewable electricity generation. It is also possible to generate heat with wood (biomass) boilers and stoves, solar water heating and heat pumps. There will soon be incentives for heat too. The government’s renewable heat incentive will start in April 2011. Detailed proposals are due soon.

This opens a similar (although longer) window of opportunity for investment. If you install renewable heat systems for your home between now and April 2011 you will be able to apply for Low Carbon Building Programme grants and will be transferred to the heat incentive. But until the proposed rates are published we won’t know what the return will be.

Renewable energy is never going to be a get rich quick scheme. But, whether your motive is lowering your carbon emissions, increasing your energy security, an expectation that energy prices can only continue to go up, or just a love of the technology, it’s beginning to look like an attractive investment.

The government is finally getting serious about the public’s energy concerns with the introduction of the new Feed in Tariffs, also known as clean energy cash back. This means that from April 2010 you will be paid generously for all of the energy you generate, leaving you free to choose whether to use the energy to reduce your bills or sell it back to the electricity company and thereby being paid twice.  Putting this into context, based on a standard solar photovoltaic system you would receive 36.5p/kWh through the feed in tariff, a total reduction in energy bills and an extra 5p/kwh for every unit you export. This totalled over a year could be a sum in excess of £900. Compare this to the initial investment costs and you are looking at a return of around 8% per annum, far better than the returns offered by any high street banks. Looking at the potential savings in relation to the recent ofgen report stating that the cost of energy for households is forecasted to rise by 60% over the next five years, it becomes clear that turning to renewable energy could become essential to homeowners in the future.

If you have been interested in utilizing solar power in your home but have been unsure about how and when, you should act sooner rather than later, a £2500 grant is on offer by the Government to assist with the cost of installation but is only open for a short period of time.

In the coming years the cost of energy will inevitably increase, by choosing to invest now you can take full advantage of the Governments grant and the generous Feed in Tariffs by the time your friends and neighbours are dreading their next energy bill you could be safe in the knowledge that you have a sustainable and profitable energy supply.

British Eco Ltd is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Find out what we’re up to and how we can help you stop wasting energy… What’s happening this energy saving week.

This year’s theme is waste and we’re helping people across the UK, stop wasting their time, money and energy. Short on time? Check out some quick and easy ways to stop wasting energy with our Energy Saving Clock. Some ideas only take one minute!  Try the energy saving clock.

Real families waste habits revealed.  Look out for our undercover reporter videos, where children from across the UK secretly film their family’s wasteful home habits and find out what simple actions they can take to stop wasting energy.  See what they discovered.

Dave’s tips of the month.  As the days get colder it’s important we know how to keep our homes cosy and warm without spending a fortune. Read Dave’s top tips for getting your home ready for winter and make it a green Halloween too!  Get your home ready for winter.  Make it a green halloween.

Smart meters for everyone.  Did you know all houses are on track to have Smart Meters by 2020? The new meters will mean an end to estimated bills and having to wait at home for readings and could save you money on your bills too.  Find out why smart meters are such a good idea.

Save energy as a community.  You don’t have to go your energy saving journey alone. Hundreds of communities across the country are coming together and running their own projects – from energy awareness days to renewable energy installations. If you’re a part of a community group and would like to set up your own project, the Green Communities program can help you.  Find out more by clicking here.