The UK government has announced £16 million of funding for 12 projects, most of which are dedicated to subsidising domestic and corporate solar panel installation.
The projects range from introducing solar panel subscription services to facilitating the creation of “green mortgages” for UK households.
For example, Sunsave will receive £1.9 million to test its Electric Roof Project, which plans to remove the barriers to the widespread installation of solar panels.
The project will offer customers the opportunity to pay a monthly fee for the monitoring and maintenance of solar panels, which will allow access to ‘smart tariffs’, instead of charging an upfront cost for installation.
E.ON’s ‘Energy as a Service’ has also received funding to the tune of £1 million, with the project aimed at installing low-carbon technologies, such as heat pumps, solar panels and battery storage, into at least 350 households, as well as offering a one-stop-shop for energy advice.
The list of projects goes on to include an £880,000 investment into Perenna for the development of a long-term, fixed-rate “green mortgage”, and a £795,000 boost to Chameleon Technology’s HTC-Up project, which provides domestic homeowners and landlords bespoke green loans and cashback rewards.
Another big winner was Scroll Finance Limited’s Glocers Project, which received £1.5 million of government funding to pilot a project that uses equity in a home to provide a loan that funds the upfront costs of installing energy saving measures.
It is important to note that the £20 million Green Home Finance Accelerator from which the £16 million is allocated is funded through the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio and projects are due to operate until February 2025.
Lord Callanan, minister for energy efficiency and green finance, said: “When energy bills reached record highs, we stepped in to lessen the burden on hardworking families across the country. We are always looking to test progressive ways to make energy saving measures more accessible and affordable, allowing people to make their homes greener and warmer.”
Emma Harvey-Smith, programme director for the built environment at the Green Finance Institute, said: “Delivering a range of innovative and affordable financing solutions will help homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient, lowering bills and reducing emissions.
Developing and piloting new green finance mechanisms to ensure they successfully support as wide a range of customers as possible, and unlock barriers to retrofit, will enable more energy efficiency home upgrades at pace and scale.”
