Feed in Tariffs (aka FiTs) will be available in the UK from April – but does anyone really understand what they are?  Or that they are set to fundamentally alter the way people think about energy in the UK?

Under plans announced by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, FiTs open the door to householders who choose to generate their own energy (by installing solar panels or wind turbines for example) to ‘sell’ surplus energy via their energy supplier back to the National Grid.

The scheme does have its critics, but it is the first of many steps the Government will be taking to help meet its targets for lowering carbon emissions.  For householders, it offers the chance to radically change their relationship with energy suppliers.  Rather than being solely importers of energy into their homes, they will become exporters – which can offset energy costs and any investment made on green energy devices in the home.

So, Home Zero Home was interested to see how much people on the street know about FiTs – if anything.  GreenUnlimted spent the day talking to punters in London, at Oxford Circus and in the City.  The results, admittedly straw poll-like in their methodology, make for interesting reading…

The following questions were put to 233 homeowners:

1.     Are you a home owner? (the assumption being that people who own their own properties would be more likely to undergo the improvements needed to qualify for the scheme)

2.     Have you heard of the government’s new Feed in Tariffs?

3.     Would you be interested in partaking in the Feed in Tariffs?

4.     Do you think your property is suitable for installing renewable energy?

5.     Do you know when the Feed in Tariff initiative launches?

Less than 1% (2 people) had heard of the FiT’s. After a brief explanation of what they were just over 24% (57 people) were interested in partaking in the scheme but only 5% (12 people) thought that their property would be suitable. No one knew when the scheme launched.

GreenUnlimited believes that there is a need to overcome the inertia of public ignorance about the existence, benefits and suitability of FiT’s for domestic energy generation. Extending early adoption beyond the enclave of those already converted and expectant of the scheme gives FiT’s a stronger foundation from which to grow.

We’ve sent the findings to DECC with some ideas about communicating FiTs.  If you have any views about FiTs, they’ll be gratefully received.

As 2009 draws to a close (about 4.5 hours left as I write), I was considering posting a ‘zero’ review of the decade.  But then I realised that that is the cheeky way every other media organisation pads out its offering/coverage in the quiet end of year lull, when many staffers are on their hols.  So, bucking the trend slightly, I thought I would give you a quick preview of the next decade from my humble HZH perspective.  For climate change, it’s an important 10 years ahead (and more). Don’t let the ‘climate gate’ conspiracy-theorists, or those rather strangely enthusiastic but nonetheless passionate and I hope basically good fellows at Infowars.com deviate your thoughts on this.

We do need to do something.  And it needs to be big. So I predict that there will be a considerable amount of conflicting messages floating around in the foreseeable future, just as in the past.  I also predict that the various targets that have been set for ‘zeroing’ the planet’s carbon output are at risk of being missed, and probably will be.  Politicians will say, on Radio 4′s Today Programme and elsewhere, ‘I told you so’. I also predict that the media will moan about the ‘cost’ of being/going ‘green’ and the zero carbon housing that has already been built will be ‘outed’ in a shock Sun newspaper expose that reveals exclusively that some of these dwellings are, in fact, not ‘zero’ at all.  This will be supported by quotes from a mad scientist who looks vaguely like Einstein, who will eventually appear on ‘Britian’s Got Talent’.

‘He’ will get the Christmas number one single in the UK charts at some point in the next decade.  And then he will be revealed as actually being a woman, who will then join the ‘Loose Women’ team as a regular and possibly go on to host ITV’s ‘This Morning’ with that bloke with the silver hair. Basically, the next decade will be a bit like the last decade.  As usual, for those not interested in making the effort to look a little further beyond their comfort zone, it will be full of all the usual ‘stuff’.  Great! However, maybe it’s worth making a New Year’s resolution to dig a little deeper, go a couple of yards beyond the usual nine, peek into things with a tad more effort than normal and form some opinions – or even better – get online and join a debate that you feel passionate about and let people know how YOU feel about things that MATTER and that you CARE about.  If that happens to be climate change, you’re welcome here.  If it’s not, you still will be – but there are plenty of other places out there in the digital world where you can participate and have your say. Join in.  Engage.  It’s a great, liberating thing to do.  It’s powerful.  And you CAN make a difference. Happy New Year everyone, and thanks for the support with HZH in 2009. We’ll be back in 2010 and beyond with a new site, some campaigns and more to say!

It’s not exactly X Factor, with 19 million TV viewers tuning into watch the nail-biting finish, and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a clear winner either. Shame, in every definition of the word. Welcome to Day 12 of the marathon conference on climate change in Copenhagen… President Obama’s speaking later, among other global leaders.  Other highlights (with thanks to DECC) for Day 12 are:

The Prime Minister of Denmark, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and a limited number of Heads of State and Government, including President Obama, representing all groups and regions, are speaking at an Informal High Level event. Watch on the UNFCCC live stream.

President Obama of the United States has now arrived to lend his political weight to the negotiations and, hopefully, help achieve an ambitious deal.  Yesterday the President’s Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced America’s intention to work with other countries towards a goal of “jointly mobilizing $100bn a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries.”

The UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already given his statement at the High Level Segment of the COP15 urging leaders to overcome obstacles and form “the first global alliance of 192…for the preservation of the planet”.  Gordon Brown has also spoken of the challenges of his role at the UN Climate Change summit, but says that he is determined to reach a “legally binding treaty”. The PM said, “It is really important, for Britain that we get this deal and it is important that I do everything I can in the next few days to make that possible.”

Check out the new section here that seeks out ‘green facts’ in the hope that we might be able to work together to qualify some of them, or simply just have a laugh at those which are clearly not quite as sacred as facts ought to be!  See “Facts or Friction“.  I’m using Digg to spot and capture these and will share more here regularly.  By the way, if anybody knows how to incorporate the Digg news feed Widget into my WordPress blog PLEASE let me know!!  Cheers, EWW

Home Zero Home has added it’s paw-print to the ‘Small Change. Big Difference’ campaign, which aims to influence the British Government’s roll-out of the proposed new Feed-in Tariff by ensuring that solar power is an important part of the renewable energy mix in the UK.  Find out more at We Support Solar… but hurry, if you want your voice to be heard as part of a big public consultation on the subject, you only have until 15 October, 2009 to make some noise!