§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many(a) individuals and (b) registered companies have applied for grants under the Clear Skies Initiative as a result of including solar power in their home design. [146119]
§ Mr. TimmsThe information is as follows:
(a) Currently, 1,445 applications for solar hot water heating systems have been received and 1,368 have been accepted, with a total grant value of £684,000.
(b) For community/not-for-profit organisations, 90 applications have been received and 67 projects have been offered grants totalling £955,766.02 for the installation of solar hot water heating systems.
§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many homes in the United Kingdom have solar panels. [146120]
§ Mr. TimmsThe DTI does not keep a record of all solar installations but according to figures from the Building Research Establishment there are approximately 60,000 solar thermal systems installed in the UK.
We estimate that approximately 1,000 homes currently have PV installed.
§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much money has been spent under the Clear Skies Initiative on grants to homebuilders that include solar power in their home design. [146122]
§ Mr. TimmsThe Clear Skies initiative offers grants only to individual householders and community/notfor-profit organisations. No grants have been given directly to homebuilders.
§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps her Department is taking to encourage the use of solar energy cells. [146123]
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§ Mr. TimmsThe DTI is supporting the demonstration of photovoltaics (PV) in housing and large public buildings through the Domestic Field Trial (DFT) and Large Scale Field Trial (LSFT). A combined budget of £10 million is supporting the installation and monitoring of PV systems in around 500 houses (30 projects) and 12–15 large-scale public buildings. The Field Trials aim to raise awareness of PV technology, create confidence in its applications, and provide opportunities for the UK photovoltaics industry.
The Government is committed to a major initiative with industry and others to achieve a UK solar PV demonstration programme in line with our main competitors. The current programme, which started in April 2002 and is worth £20 million over three years, is the first stage of this process. At the halfway stage, over half the funding has been allocated.
The DTI is also putting effort into removing a number of barriers to the deployment of very small generators, such as PV. These include reduction of VAT to 5 per cent. for professionally installed systems, a new PV Annex to Planning Policy Guidance Note (PPG22), simplified connection agreements to the local network (G77 and G83/1) and Installer Training and Accreditation Schemes. In addition, the Government plans to amend the Renewables Obligation to enable very small generators like PV to accumulate their production over a year, rather than a month, so as to qualify for ROCs.