ETI Response To Chris Huhne’s ‘Green Deal’ announcement

9th December 2010

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has welcomed today’s (THURSDAY) comments by Chris Huhne which focus on safety in the home in relation to the Government’s proposed Green Deal initiative.
The Green Deal, which is due to start in 2012, is the Government’s way of enabling private companies to make affordable energy efficiency available to all. According to DECC, the work to upgrade property will have no upfront cost to consumers and will be paid back through savings on energy bills.

The Energy Bill, published in Parliament today, sets out for the first time how the Green Deal will work. It will be available for both household and business premises.
ETI Chief Executive Dr David Clarke said: "We wholeheartedly welcome the introduction of the Green Deal initiative. This is a really good complement to our £3 million project to design longer term  supply chain solution to improve the energy efficiency and energy affordability of the 26million UK homes which will still be in use by 2050.
The ETI project will identify ways in which the refurbishment and retrofitting of existing residential properties can be accelerated by industrialising the processes of design, supply and implementation, while stimulating demand from householders by exploiting additional opportunities that come with extensive building refurbishment – initiatives like improving comfort in the home at the same time as reducing energy use.  This will build on the initial supply-base that ‘The Green Deal’ will create.
The UK Government sees retrofitting existing homes as a key tool to achieving its 80% CO2 emissions reduction goal for 2050, with housing the single biggest contributor to the nation’s CO2 emissions.  However, the challenge is huge, with the Department of Energy and Climate Change suggesting that we need to be delivering a comprehensive package of measures at a rate of 1.8 million per year by 2020 in order to get the entire housing stock operating more efficiently by 2030 in order to meet our targets. That’s nearly a city the size of Cambridge each and every week."

The Government is right to look at improving the efficiency of people’s homes. Twenty four per cent of today’s CO2 emissions in the UK are linked to energy use in domestic properties. Refurbishing these houses with energy efficiency measures is key to ensuring the delivery of affordable, sustainable and secure energy to domestic and business consumers. Persuading consumers to take up refurbishment and technology retro-fit opportunities requires us to address the challenge of creating supply-chains and delivery routes which consumers consider affordable and, critically which they trust.
As well as helping businesses improve their own energy efficiency, Chris Huhne believes there are huge market opportunities in the supply chain, including new opportunities for small and medium sized firms. DECC suggest that the number of people employed in insulation alone could soar from the present 27,000 to 100,000 by 2015, eventually rising to a peak of 250,000 in the next decade.
The ETI, a public private partnership tasked with developing ‘mass scale’ technologies that will help the UK meet its 2050 carbon reduction targets, is made up of six of the largest global industries BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell together with the UK Government.

Its in-house Energy System Model helps to identify those technologies capable of having the greatest impact through to 2050 under a range of different demand scenarios. It gathers data from a diverse range of global industries and can identify a mix of potential energy sources and the cost implications and timings associated with their introduction.  The ETI’s modelling work consistently shows building insulation to be one of the top 5 developments for the UK’s future energy system – enabling affordability, security and sustainability.
The ETI thinks and acts strategically using a robust view of the whole UK energy system to make targeted investments in large scale engineering projects which reduce risk for the whole industry through the shared expertise and experience of our industrial members.

Since it was formed in 2008 the ETI has invested in 26 projects worth over £62m in offshore wind, marine, transport, CCS, energy storage and distribution, distributed energy and buildings. Further projects will be announced in a number of programme areas including bioenergy in the next few months.

Notes to Editors

• The Energy Technologies Institute is a UK based company formed from global industries and the UK Government. The ETI brings together projects and partnerships that create affordable, reliable, clean energy for heat, power, transport and associated infrastructure. For more information, please go to www.energytechnologies.co.uk


• The ETI’s six private sector members are BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell. The UK Government has committed to match support from four further Members.  The ETI’s public funds are received from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills through the Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). These organisations, together with the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), are engaged directly in the ETI’s strategy and programme development.


• The ETI will accelerate the deployment of affordable, secure low-carbon energy systems from 2020 to 2050 by demonstrating technologies, developing knowledge, skills and supply-chains and informing the development of regulation, standards and policy.

For further information please contact
ETI PR Manager Richard Robinson 01509 202026 / 07500 049626

DECC announcement - http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn10_125/pn10_125.aspx