Having a big efficient ‘green’ boiler, supplying heat to a whole town or district, is relatively common in Denmark and other countries; in fact one of our clients, Thamesway Energy, does something similar to this in Woking and Milton Keynes.

But why isn’t it more widespread in the UK?

Well, if the figures according to Wales and West Utilities are to be believed, then a subsidy of 75p/kWh is required to make it economically viable. That’s nearly double the earliest and highest level of Feed in Tariff (FiT) which was paid for photovoltaics back in 2011, and more than 8 times the price agreed for the Hinckley C nuclear reactor!

Tim Rotheray, from the Association for Decentralised Energy, questions whether 75p/kWh is really needed and we echo that sentiment. We’ve seen <200kW biomass boilers flying off the shelves when the commercial RHI was 9p/kWh (now much less) and can’t imagine why you’d need 8 times that subsidy just to install some district heating pipe. Surely there must be potential in areas which are not on the gas grid and alternatives are already expensive.  Perhaps an increase in subsidy would help but the level needs testing.