UK water mills make it into green subsidies

Modernised water wheels and turbines are now included in the government’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme, which financially rewards small-scale renewable energy projects.

Hydropower is already one of the most popular sources for new green energy projects as the Environment Agency says it has noticed a tenfold demand for hydropower permits in the past two years.

“This announcement will breathe useful life back into thousands of schemes all over the UK, and will attract visitors keen to learn about renewables,” said Renewable Energy Association (REA) Chief Executive Gaynor Hartnell.

The association, together with environmental group Friends of the Earth, had been campaigning for the inclusion of refurbished hydro facilities into the FIT scheme.

REA said it hoped that biomass and deep geothermal green power sources will also benefit from FITs in future.

The extension of FITs to refurbished hydro projects comes one week after the government announced in its spending review that green energy rewards would be maintained as they are.

“Feed-in Tariffs are here to stay and we confirmed last week that we don’t want to change the tariffs until 2013 to ensure ongoing investment in new projects,” Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said.