Green Deal Skills needs: report published
For many years, the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes has played an important role in helping the energy efficiency industry to understand its need for skills. The government's new Green Deal for
householders will rely heavily on a skilled workforce in the energy efficiency industry to
deliver a large number of energy efficiency improvements to homes in the UK.
In these times of credit crunch and possible "double dip" recession, saving money on fuel bills becomes ever more important, so it's vital that the industry has sufficient skilled people to be able to deliver the Green Deal. Without this, fewer Green Deal improvements will be made, and fewer households will benefit from the lower fuel bills and warmer homes that it promises.
Work to follow up the initial Skills
Review, reported a few weeks ago on this site, is now being undertaken by the relevant Sector
Skills Councils under the guidance of the Partnership.
An interim report has now been published, and is available on the Partnership website here
The report identifies Home Energy Assessors and Home Energy Advisers as a vital part of the team that government will be relying on to deliver the Green Deal. In fact, the report identifies these two functions as being possible high risk shortage areas. This level of risk has been allocated because of the importance of the role to the Green Deal, and the high volumes of people who will need up-skilling to fill these new roles.
New report on Skills needs: Household Energy Efficiency Skills Review
Carbon dioxide emissions from housing are a major contributor to global climate change - around a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from our homes. To tackle this, emissions from older homes must be reduced - although new homes are built to much higher standards, there are simply not very many new homes compared to all those older homes that are already there. Householders
will therefore be encouraged to undertake low carbon refurbishment or ‘eco-upgrades’ of
their homes, and the new Coalition Government seems to be as commited to this as was the previous Labour administration.
In order to do this, householders will be reliant on the Household Energy
Efficiency (HEE) industries (comprising heating, insulation and
glazing, micro-generation, energy efficiency advice and home energy
assessment). Concern has been expressed that this industry doesn't currently have sufficient skilled people to support the level of work that will be needed. So, the skills working group of the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes (EEPH) commissioned a major study into skills in this area.
The report has now been published and can be read
here.
In this new vision for the provision of home energy efficiency improvements, there will be a
shift from the current emphasis on installing single measures in homes, towards the integrated installation of multiple energy efficiency improvements. This report recognises that Domestic Energy Assessors have an important role to play. Their existing skills and knowledge provide a sound basis for them to acquire the advanced technical knowledge that will be needed by the whole house energy adviser.
JTec responds to consultation: Making
better use of EPCs
Communities and Local Government has consulted on making better use of Energy Performance Certificates
(EPC) and data. The consultation document, which may be
viewed here, states that Warm Homes, Greener Homes: A Strategy for Household Energy Management (2010) has set out detailed plans to achieve targets for
reducing annual emissions from residential buildings by 29 per cent by
2020. This will mean, as well as insulating all lofts and cavities
where practicable by 2015, up to 7 million homes will receive an
eco-upgrade, including major measures such as solid wall insulation or
heat pumps.
The consultation recognises that EPCs have an important role to play in supporting
these carbon reduction aims, by providing vital information about the energy
efficiency of buildings in England and Wales, and advice about measures
to improve their energy performance. It considers a number of measures intended to enhance
the contribution from EPCs, by improving their effectiveness and by
making better use of the energy performance data they contain.
CLG's Peter Matthew gave two relevant presentations at Ecobuild, which may be viewed here:
Paving the Way for EPBD2, and here:
Update: EPCs and DECs.
JTec Services' response to the consultation may be viewed
here.
Requirement to have a HIP for home sales is suspended
Communities and Local Government have announced the suspension of the HIP regulations, pending future legislation to abolish them completely. The requirement to have an Energy Performance Certificate remains. Information for home sellers about this can be read
here.
Renewable Heat
Incentive
Communities
and Local Government recently consulted on a proposal for a
Renewable Heat incentive (RHI - also known as the clean energy
cashback).
The proposed tariff levels have been
calculated to bridge the financial gap between the cost of
conventional and renewable heat systems, with additional compensation
for certain technologies for an element of the non-financial cost.
This produces a rate of return of 12% on the additional cost of
renewables, with 6% for solar thermal.
The
intention is to have the RHI in place for April 2011, one year after
the Feed In Tarrifs for electricity generation from renewables.
The
consultation closed on 26 April 2010 but information may be viewed on this link renewable heat incentive.
There
is an excellent summary of this consultation, written by Cathy
Debenham, on the
YouGen website
JTec responds to DECC consultation on extension to CERT
JTec Services' response to this consultation, which closed on 14 March, can be viewed
here. For more information about this consultation, see our
consultations page.
This
response comments on the provision of energy advice in CERT by Home
Energy Advisers (HEAs), and how HEAs could assist energy suppliers to
help households in fuel poverty. It also highlights the inequity of
recognising one qualification as a passport to the role of Home Energy
Adviser, whilst not including another, which has been recently
developed to provide a simple upgrade route for Domestic Energy
Assessors (DEAs) and Home Inspectors (HIs) to become HEAs.
DEAs
and HIs are already well qualified to advise on improvements to homes
and their heating systems. They can also prepare an Energy Performance
Certificate and Recommendations Report, which is a great way to learn
more about saving energy, and money, in the home.
DECC announces HEM strategy update
The supporting papers have now been added to DECC's website:
link to HEM strategy page of DECC website
Where an EPC exists, the energy advisor must be able to access it. Apparently, last year's consultation on the Heat and Energy Saving Strategy strongly
supported including a survey element in the home energy advice package, which suggests that the EPC inspection should form the basis for the adviser's
survey
.
This may well be one of the reasons why DECC suggest that the new National Occupational Standards for Home and Community Energy Advisers are the best basis for a qualification for a Home Energy Adviser (HEA), as these standards include the ability to collect the data required to assess energy performance. They combine the skills and knowledge already possessed by a DEA, with skills that a HEA also needs, and which may be new to the DEA. These include skills such as being able to advice, and also knowing what advice to give - on behaviour changes that will enable clients to save energy, carbon, and of course, money.
Home Energy Management strategy
The strategy is now available on the DECC website, having been announced at EcoBuild on Tuesday 2nd March 2010. Read the press release and follow the link to the strategy on the link above.
Part IV, Supporting Customers, gives an insight into government's plans for future provision of energy advice, via mixture of free-to-access phone and on-line services, backed up with more tailored advice from accredited Home Energy Advisers (HEAs).
There is confirmation that whilst the City and Guilds 6176 remains the minimum standard for advisers working on telephone advice lines, HEAs will, in future, need a qualification that fully reflects Units 1 - 5 of the NOS for Home and Community Energy Advisers.
The role of the EPC within this provision is supported, but not mandated, and a further consultation is promised, later this year, on the detailed requirements for the HEA survey.
The strategy states that government proposes to work towards a single accreditation framework for HEAs, and will also develop a Code of Practice for advice provided to the consumer by product manufacturers and service providers.