Benchmark Study on Green Buildings - Royal Architectural Institute ...

these Smart Meters could help users save up to 15 pence in every pound off their
electricity bills (about 15¢ off every Canadian dollar), and result in an overall decrease in
greenhouse gas emissions from the power generators. With the results of the roundtable,
the EST has called on the government to establish a UK-wide program to give all
households smart meters by 2012. Initially, these smart meters would be required for all
meter replacements and new connections. The EST has also put pressure on the
government to raise home and building energy efficiency standards, and to increase
incentives available to people for home greening.
The EST also runs several incentive programs aimed at increasing energy efficiency,
decreasing energy consumption, increasing the use of renewable energy, or combinations
of these three things. Community Energy Program funds the refurbishment of existing
community energy or heating schemes, and the installation of new ones. Community
energy schemes provide heat and/or power from one central source to multiple buildings,
and result in increased energy efficiency and decreased energy consumption as less heat
or energy is wasted. The Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative
(SCHRI) is a program specifically for Scotland and is funded by the Scottish Executive
and managed jointly by the Energy Saving Trust and Highlands and Islands Enterprise
(HIE). Under the SCHRI Program, Scottish homeowners can qualify for grants worth up
to 30% of the cost of installing a renewable technology system, up to a maximum of
£4,000. The energy systems covered include biomass, heat pumps, small scale hydro
turbines, solar water heaters, solar space heaters, wind turbines, and photovoltaic
generator systems. A household can qualify for up to two grants, provided they are for
different technologies.
The Low Carbon Buildings Program, launched in Spring 2006, will run for three years
and covers the entire UK. This is to continue on from where the government left off when
it terminated its Solar Photovoltaics Major Demonstration Program in March 2006. The
government program ran from 2002 to 2006, and covered between 40% and 50% of a PV
system’s installation costs. Since 2002, the program has provided £26 million of funding
for 1,200 domestic and 180 commercial installations. As a result, it is estimated that
20,000 tonnes of carbon will be saved over the lifetime of the installations, thereby
making an important contribution towards reaching the UK’s climate change targets as
well as the Government’s target of 10 percent of energy generated to be from renewable
sources by 2010. The EST’s Low Carbon Buildings Program will now cover photovoltaic
systems, as well as wind turbines, small hydro generators, solar water heaters, heat pumps,
biomass systems, fuel cells, and renewable and micro combined heat and power systems.
A total of £28.5 million is being made available through this program, £10.5 million for
householders and community organizations, and £18 million will be made available to
public, not for profit and private sector organizations.
The EST’s Innovation Program provides funding and technical support to local
authorities, housing associations and their project partners for innovative energy
efficiency projects across the UK. Since 2001, the Program has issued around £9 million
of funding to over 270 projects, saving thousands of tonnes carbon dioxide emissions
along the way. Now that direct program funding has ended, the focus has turned to
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