Microgeneration for the Mass Market

by Michael Scott
(Sheffield)

Going green and reducing the amount of energy we consume at home is a big challenge. Competing to reach emissions targets whilst in the face of rising fuel costs and the harmful impacts of fuel poverty on our society means that the incentive to act has never been greater.

Attempting to guide the nation into becoming more energy efficient by delivering small scale renewable energy, Mark Group helps make over 6,000 homes more energy efficient every week, striving to deliver new microgeneration technologies to the mass market.

What is ‘Microgeneration’?

Microgeneration is a new and relatively unknown concept to the UK homeowner. It is only recently that simple energy saving measures such as energy efficient light bulbs and cavity wall insulation have reached the mass market thanks to support from policy makers aiding cost reductions.

Microgeneration technologies such as solar electricity and wind will be financially supported through the Governments new Clean Energy Cash-back scheme from April 2010, with heating technologies receiving monetary support the following year from April 2011.

Whilst financial supports will aide implementation into the mainstream immensely, some basic measures will also need to be in place to help benefit both the domestic homeowners and industry producers during future market growth.

Supportive Measures

• Safeguards – Certification of products must be benchmarked and well regulated across the industry.

• Financial Support Packages – Should help create opportunities rather than dependencies for all parties in order to help embrace energy efficiency’s long term future.

• ‘Whole House Solutions’ - must be applied to minimise hassle and maximise savings. Mark Group are currently adopting this by delivering and creating opportunity for energy saving and efficiency, delivered in tandem with microgeneration.

Mark Group currently speaks to around 1,200 domestic customers every day, all of whom want to improve the energy efficiency of their home. Whilst this is a healthy number of enquiries for the Mark Group business, it is only scratching the surface on the potential for energy saving in the UK.

Mark Group is the UK’s leading installer of domestic energy saving solutions, having already improved the energy efficiency of more than 2 million homes.