Excitement Grows for the UK’s Green Deal

Despite the heat wave currently enveloping the majority of the United Kingdom, there’s an increasing level of excitement in the nation’s energy sector with the launch of the Green Deal in October getting ever closer. With homes and businesses soon to benefit from the initiative, there’s a very good chance that money will be saved and thousands of buildings will be more energy efficient come the onset of Winter’s first cold snap.

That said, as this website is US based with most of its readership American, there’s a very good chance that the term Green Deal is as impenetrable as bangers, bobbies, and black pudding. And with this in mind, the following blog post has been written to provide a neat overview of one of the initiatives from across the globe that could ultimately add to the long term sustainability of the planet.

So, let’s jump right in; what exactly is the Green Deal? Well, at a basic level, the Green Deal is a financial assistance scheme for home and business owners in the UK to access low interest loans with the aim of making a building more energy efficient. Householders who cannot afford to take out a loan will even have their energy efficiency improvements subsidised by increases in all energy bills in the UK.

Created by the coalition government, the scheme will be accessible for thousands of building owners in the UK and proponents claim it could play a huge part as one of the key elements of reaching carbon emission targets in the country. Loans of a value of up to £10,000 (close to $16,000) will be available for a number of retrofit improvements including:

• Insulation: this includes cavity wall, loft, and roof insulation.
• Central heating improvements: including the installation of a new boiler.
• Other improvements include double glazing, water efficient faucets, and under floor heating.

The loans will be of a low interest nature and will be paid back directly through savings in energy bills. Additionally, they will not influence an individual’s credit rating.

Sounds great right? Well, there are of course a number of criticisms of the programme too and the government is currently attempting to iron out these kinks. Questions have been asked about how much money will actually be saved by those taking out loans and there are also worries that the initiative’s confusing structure will prove obstructive and unattractive to many.

Regardless of these worries, there is little doubt that the Green Deal represents a step in the right direction and there have been a number of calls for similar opportunities to be put in place for other countries around the world.

You can find out more information about the Green Deal at Jablite.co.uk and via the UK’s Department for Energy and Climate website.

Photo Credit: Some rights reserved by Moosicorn via Flickr.

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