Richmond Fire Station generates electricity from a rooftop PV array and was an early member of the Home Generation scheme
Until 2010, there was a financial incentive to generate renewable electricity in the UK only you did it on a large scale. Many small renewable generators produced too little electricity to claim Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs), and even for those who were eligible, the effort required was often not justified by the financial return.
Good Energy is a UK electricity supplier that sells only renewable electricity to its customers. It set up the 'Home Generation' scheme to encourage more renewable generation at local level. The scheme made a payment to small-scale renewable energy generators for each kWh that they generated.
The UK incentive system has now changed, thanks in part to the example of ‘Home Generation’, and lobbying undertaken by Good Energy to get a better deal for small generators. All suppliers are now required to pay a Feed-in-Tariff per kWh for small-scale renewable generation, similar to the ‘Home Generation’ payment. Good Energy now has nearly 2,000 customers under this scheme. It continues to sell only renewable electricity, and now supplies about 20% of this from its own wind farm.
