Renewable energy systems need monitoring

Open-access content Tuesday 10th January 2012 — updated 1.53pm, Tuesday 5th May 2020

11 January 2012

Social housing providers are installing renewable energy systems but not monitoring their performance for cost-effectiveness, according to a new report.

The situation amounts to a "fit and forget'" approach to fuel poverty by councils and social landlords, noted the report from the Centre for Infrastructure Management at Sheffield Hallam University.

Renewable energy technologies, such as photovoltaic arrays, solar thermal panels and ground source heat pumps, are increasingly being used by social housing providers to help alleviate fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions.

But to date, it was not clear which technologies were most cost-effective, said Dr Fin O'Flaherty, one of the authors of the research funded by the Eaga Charitable Trust.

He said social housing providers are to be applauded for their installation work. However, "our report has found that there is often a limited understanding of how the technologies perform in use or what level of savings are being delivered to residents".

The result is under-performing systems and diminished financial savings for residents.

Solar panels can save households between £340 and £420 annually. But it will still take between 15 and 17 years to pay back installation costs, according to the report.

Ground source heat pumps can save money, up to several hundred pounds a year in heating costs, but some residents have complained the systems fail to sufficiently heat their homes.

O'Flaherty said the driver for installation of the systems has been the government subsidies, such as the feed-in-tariff scheme. This lowers the cost of the system and shortens payback periods. Social housing providers have begun to adopt a more long-term attitude toward their schemes.

"However, under-performing and malfunctioning renewable energy technologies will result in a reduction in income for social housing providers and undermine the economics of schemes," he said.

He also warned that even if renewable technologies reduce energy consumption, they are not "a silver bullet" for alleviating the problem of fuel poverty in the UK.

"But when used in conjunction with other energy efficiency measures they can provide a useful way of reducing households' dependence on energy supplied by utility companies," he said.

Eaga Charitable Trust is an independent grant-giving trust that supports projects and research into fuel poverty. The trust was founded by Eaga - now Carillion Energy Services - in 1993. Carillion has donated more than £3.3 million to the trust, which the trust has used to give grants for action and research projects, according to the trust's website.