BBC News 11 Jul 09;
Households that contribute electricity to the National Grid are to receive payments under a new government scheme.
Towns and villages will be encouraged to generate their own power with wind, water and solar energies, and then be paid for how much they produce.
Called clean energy cash-back, schemes already operate in 19 European countries including Germany.
But critics warn that small-scale production is expensive and projects may require government subsidy.
'Feed-in tariffs'
At present, anyone in the UK who feeds electricity into the National Grid can get a reduction on their fuel bills through smart meters.
But ministers hope that the promise of cash in people's pockets will encourage them to seek new ways of generating their own power.
In Germany, whole towns have grouped together to buy wind turbines, build biomass plants and erect solar panels on all private houses.
They are then paid a guaranteed fixed price for every kilowatt of energy they produce - a higher sum than for electricity made from fossil fuels in traditional power stations.
Three wind turbines can make £15,000 a year for a single village.
Since so-called "feed-in tariffs" were introduced in Germany, some 400,000 homes, particularly in the sunnier south of the country, have installed solar panels.
But the government has had to subsidise such projects in order to keep them viable.
At present, only about 2% of Britain's energy comes from renewable sources, but the government has pledged to increase that to 15% within the next 12 years.
Plan to simplify selling energy back to National Grid
Householders who generate their own energy will find it easier to sell excess supplies back to the National Grid under government "green" plans to be announced on Wednesday.
Patrick Hennessy, The Telegraph 11 Jul 09;
Details were revealed amid claims that ministers' low-carbon strategy will put around £230 a year on the typical family's energy bill.
The government's "renewable energy strategy", to be announced on Wednesday by Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, will propose spending more than £100 billion on renewable sources by 2020 – including 7,000 wind turbines.
It is already legally bound to cut CO2 emissions by 34 per cent by 2020 and by 80 per cent by 2050. To achieve this it must increase the proportion generated from renewable sources from the current level of 2 per cent to 15 per cent in 2020.
The strategy is said to estimate that bills will have to rise by 20 per cent – which would put £230 a year on the current average household levy of £1,150 a year for electricity and gas.
However, ministers will also attempt to encourage people to manufacture their own energy through generators by simplifying the current cumbersome process of households selling excess electricity back to the grid.
At the moment, householders need to buy an export meter for around £75 and then register to sell supplies to the grid.
They must then negotiate a rate with their electricity supplier – almost always for much less money per unit than the supplier charges households.
A government source said: "At the moment the system is far too bureaucratic and can put the householder at a disadvantage. We aim to change that."
