Government spent £17 million testing cutting-edge Green Scheme Tech

You could retrofit a lot of houses with £17 million of taxpayers’ cash. But that was never the intention of the government’s retrofit for the future programme - it was all about innovation. Hence the majority of this substantial sum was split between just 86 projects led by social landlords. Each was allocated £150,000 and a monitoring programme, not only to test cutting-edge Green Scheme technology in a variety of property types, but also to identify the obstacles standing in the way of its widespread adoption.
 
But, nearly 18 months after the experiment was announced, and a year away from the start of the government’s flagship retrofit programme, the Green Deal, the housing sector has yet to learn some of the valuable lessons the programme has to contribute towards the UK’s ambition to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

Sustainable Housing receives frequent press releases publicising the latest ‘innovative, exemplar retrofit scheme set to achieve 80 per cent carbon cuts using cutting-edge technology’. Great. But given a £150,000 spend and, in some cases, more than a year’s work, this is surely expected? And social landlords leading the retrofit revolution don’t need this gloss - they need to know where projects went awry and what best practice can be shared from these experiences so they are better placed to retrofit at scale.

This will happen eventually, but many retrofit for the future schemes have only just been completed and monitoring by the Energy Savings Trust has either not yet begun or it is too soon to see any meaningful results. In fact, this is set to continue into 2013 with the first results emerging next year, ahead of the launch of the government’s Green Deal, which funds energy efficiency measures through the reduction of future fuel bills.

We decided to speak to the architects behind the retrofits to bring some early onsite lessons to the fore. So, what are the major challenges and how can they be overcome? Here, we identify five key areas.

Source: insidehousing.co.uk

For additionalb information and news relating to the Green Deal Scheme see the following: www.green-deal.uk.com