Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not undertaken, nor does it currently plan to undertake any survey into the variation across Scotland of the cost of installing home insulation.

We are however aware through the development of our fuel poverty programmes, and the work we are doing with the energy supply companies through the Scottish Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) Strategy Steering Group that these costs vary across Scotland.

We have raised the issue of the cost to the energy suppliers of installing home insulation in more remote areas, and the impact that this has on the availability of these measures under CERT in Scotland with the UK Government on a number of occasions during the development of the CERT programme.

The UK Government is currently consulting on increasing the target under the Carbon Emission Reduction Target by 20%. Scottish minister recognise that the design of the CERT programme can disadvantage households in rural areas of Scotland and intend to raise this in our formal response to this consultation.

Scottish households are paying for this CERT through their fuel bills, and we must ensure that Scottish communities reap the benefits from CERT and other similar funding programmes, and we need a cast iron guarantee that new energy investment includes Scotland''s rural and island communities.

We have also raised the issue of equal access across Scotland with the energy suppliers through the Scottish CERT Strategy Steering Group, and in the development of the new Energy Assistance Package.

The Scottish Climate Change Bill includes a mandatory provision for Scottish ministers to produce an Energy Efficiency Action Plan for Scotland within one year of the bill becoming an act. The availability and cost of a number of energy efficiency measures, including home insulation, will be considered during the development and implementation of this action plan.

We have raised the issue of the availability in Scotland of Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) funded home insulation, both free and subsidised with the UK Government on a number of occasions during the development of the CERT programme.

The UK Government is currently consulting on increasing the target under the Carbon Emission Reduction Target by 20%. Scottish minister recognise that the design of the CERT programme can disadvantage households in rural areas of Scotland and intend to raise this in our formal response to this consultation. Scottish households are paying for this CERT through their fuel bills, and we must ensure that Scottish communities reap the benefits from CERT and other similar funding programmes, and we need a cast iron guarantee that new energy investment includes Scotland''s rural and island communities.

Thousands of homes across Scotland have benefitted from free insulation through our Warm Deal and central heating programmes and our new Energy Assistance Package which commences 6 April will help thousands more through; continuing funding for social sector insulation works; working with CERT providers to provide insulation for thousands of private sector homes, and delivering bespoke energy efficiency measures at stage 4 for Scotland''s most vulnerable fuel poor families and pensioners. We have raised the issue of equal access across Scotland with the energy suppliers through the Scottish CERT Strategy Steering Group, and in the development of the new Energy Assistance Package.

We have also held initial discussion with the energy companies on the recent budget announcement for the first phase of an ambitious area-base home insulation scheme supported by £15 million of new Scottish Government funding plus £15 million from other sources. This scheme is currently being developed and is expected to launch in the autumn.

The Scottish Government will be providing local government in Scotland with record levels of funding over the period covered by the spending review 2008-11. The vast majority of the funding, including the funding for self-directed support, is provided by means of a block grant.

It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it to achieve agreed outcomes, and the Scottish Government will monitor performance to make sure that our shared national priorities are achieved. It is not for the Scottish Government to intervene in how local authorities organise these services. However, Orkney Islands Council and NHS Orkney are working with the Scottish Government Joint Improvement Team to look into redesigning services to support more integrated working across health and social care.

In addition, the Scottish Government is funding three local authority test sites (Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow and Highland Councils) to evaluate the effectiveness of three different interventions to increase the uptake of self-directed support, including bridging finance (investing to save).

The main vehicle for home insulation measures is through the UK Government''s Carbon Emission Reduction Target. This places an obligation on the Energy Supply companies to meet a carbon reduction target through a range of free and subsidised energy efficiency measures including home insulation. It is for the individual energy companies to decide how to meet their carbon targets. We are working with the energy suppliers, through the Scottish CERT Strategy Steering Group, to ensure that Scotland receives its fair share of CERT activity not only in terms of population, but also to meet our distinctive energy needs.

The new Energy Assistance package [which commences 6 April 2009] will do more to help rural households by including a wider range of measures which will benefit rural homes including air source heat pumps for those off the gas grid and a wider range of insulation measures for homes which cannot take traditional measures such as cavity wall insulation. To ensure that these more expensive measures can be installed the grant maximum has been raised by £500 to £4,000 and the upper grant has been raised by £1,000 to £6,500 for homes which have particularly poor energy efficiency. The measures will be available to private sector households where; the householder or partner is aged over 60 and has no central heating or where the householder lives in a home with poor energy efficiency, and is either aged over 75 or aged over 60 and receiving one of a range of passport benefits or tax credits. For the first time, families in homes with poor energy efficiency who receive one of a range of passport benefits or tax credits and have a child under five or a disabled child under 16 will also be eligible.

In the recent budget we announced proposals for the first phase of an ambitious area-based home insulation scheme supported by £15 million of new Scottish Government funding plus £15 million from other sources. The scheme is currently being developed and is expected to launch in the autumn.

We also intend to bring forward proposals for a significant loan mechanism. This will assist householders wishing to undertake more expensive measures, such as solid wall insulation and installing renewable technologies.

There have been 1,204 applications for grants under the Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative in 2008-09. These applications are listed by category in the following table:

Household	1,101
Community	89
Energy Efficiency	14
Total	1,204

 

The breakdown by technology for each of the grant categories is listed in following tables:

Household Stream

Air source heat pumps	152
Biomass	117
Ground source heat pumps	319
Hydro	0
Lerwick district heating	18
Solar hot water	425
Solar hot water / wind	0
Solar PV	11
Solar space heating	4
Wind	55
Total	1101

 

Community Stream

Solar water	22
Solar Water / air	1
Solar PV	0
Solar water/ ground source heat pump	0
Wind	18
Wind / ground source heat pump	0
Wind / solar	1
Ground source heat pump	7
Air source heat pump	21
Water source heat pump	0
Ground source heat pump / wind / solar	13
Hydro	2
Biomass	4
Hydrogen	0
Whole island	0
Total	89

 

Under the Community Stream, grants are also offered to improve the energy efficiency of the building:

Energy Efficiency Grant applications in 2008-09

Insulation	12
Loft insulation	2
Total	14

 

The Scottish Government expects to provide around 1,200 grants under the Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative under the 2008-09 budget.

The number of grants awarded for each technology supported under the Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative, and broken down by year, are listed in the following tables:

Household Stream

	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	Total
Air Source Heat Pumps	0	0	0	16	48	136	200
Bio Mass	4	14	31	47	64	96	256
Ground Source Heat Pumps	10	89	179	271	286	285	1,120
Hydro	0	1	3	2	4	0	10
Lerwick District Heating	0	42	15	18	31	16	122
Solar Hot Water	71	106	207	368	392	358	1,502
Solar Hot Water/Wind	1	0	0	1	0	0	2
Solar PV	0	0	0	0	0	8	8
Solar Space Heating	0	1	0	1	0	3	5
Wind	9	10	21	51	66	48	205

 

Community Stream

	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	Total
Solar Water	1	12	9	15	42	36	50	165
Solar Water/Air	1	13	8	7	0	9	9	47
Solar PV	0	1	4	4	0	4	4	17
Solar Water/GSHP	2	0	0	2	2	2	2	10
Wind	0	17	17	19	59	65	69	246
Wind/GSHP	0	0	2	2	0	3	3	10
Wind/Solar	0	2	3	3	0	4	6	18

 

	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	Total
Ground Source Heat Pumps	0	10	22	18	44	53	194
Air Source Heat Pumps	0	0	1	1	1	13	40
Water Source Heat Pumps	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
GSHP/Wind/Solar	0	10	5	0	7	7	41
Hydro	0	6	7	6	6	5	38
Bio Mass	4	16	27	22	26	17	160
Hydrogen	0	1	0	1	1	1	5
Whole Island	0	0	0	1	2	2	7

 

Under the Community Stream grants are also offered to improve the energy efficiency of the building.

Energy Efficiency Grants

	Insulation	Loft Insulation
2008-09	5	7
2007-08	14	0
2006-07	10	0
2005-06	11	0
2004-05	9	0
2003-04	0	0
Total	49	7

 

The Scottish CERT (Carbon Emissions Reduction Target) Strategy, which sets out how we are working with the energy suppliers to achieve a fair share of CERT activity in Scotland, will be published in the spring of 2009.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0305-01.htm

The Regulatory Impact Assessment provides estimates of the potential microgeneration uptake, copied below (Fig 6). The figures are based on the most recently available information prior to publication, however, they do not take account of specific locational circumstances which may restrict the type of technology that could generate energy efficiently.

Figure 6. Potential Microgeneration Uptake for Scotland, Including Estimates of Thresholds (Option 3)

	GSHP	ASHP	CHP	Biomass	Wind	Solar PV	Solar Thermal	Total
2015	106	0	699	13	0	92	5,832	6,741
2020	122	0	4,055	113	0	247	10,652	15,190
2030	73	0	13,840	151	0	863	19,809	34,736
2050	413	0	23,286	6	0	4,710	34,559	62,974

Notes:

GSHP “ Ground Source Heat Pump.

ASHP “ Air Source Heat Pump.

CHP “ Combined Heat and Power.

PV “ Photo-voltaic.