Renewable energy
More and more householders are looking to use some form of renewable energy in their home to generate electricity, heat their water or warm the house. In many cases it can save money.
The most common technologies are solar panels (either for heating water or generating electricity), heat pumps, wind turbines and biomass burners.
Renewable energy is clean and produces few waste products, and comes from sources, like the sun or wind, that won’t run out. This is in contrast to conventional sources of energy such as oil, gas, coal or nuclear power. These will either become increasingly scarce and eventually run out, or their use creates pollution such as carbon dioxide (the main cause of climate change) or radioactive waste.
Feed-in tariffs (or 'clean-energy cash-backs') became available in Great Britain on 1 April 2010. Under this scheme householders and communities can be paid to generate their own electricity from renewable or low-carbon sources. Here's an example of how it works, or for more details read the feed-in tariffs pages of the Energy Saving Trust website.
You may find yourself approached by a company or organisation that wants to install solar panels on your roof and offers an incentive such as some free or discounted electricity. Some offers may be good, others are likely to be a rip-off. CSE has produced guidance for householders that you can read here.
CSE has a wide range of specialist knowledge and experience in this field and we work with public and private-sector organisations, community groups and others to develop renewable energy strategies and options (see delivering renewable energy).
We can also help private homeowners (see energy audits and assessments).
If you want basic information about generating your own energy, visit the Energy Saving Trust's renewable energy pages.