Fuel poverty - The Real Solution

So what is Fuel Poverty?

Fuel poverty is when a household needs to spend more than 10% of their household income on all domestic fuel use including appliances to heat their home to an adequate level of warmth.

So how do you eradicate it?

Well for most Devolved GOvernments it seems to be stick a Gas boiler or Oil Boiler in!

So what is wrong with that?

Well, it flies in the face of Carbon Reduction Targets across the UK, Europe and the World. It fails to account for price volatility and fails to allow any market room for renewables.

Take Northern ireland for example. Well, it has a policy within DSD to put Gas in where the gas line is and oil elsewhere. Yet in October 2009, the Sutherland tables stated that Wood Pellets was the cheapest fuel. Again in May 2010 it comes out better than oil. SO why have such a restrictive policy? It seesm that the DSD had this policy devised by NIHE in 2006...then it was passed by DSD in 2009. Yes thats 3 years to approve a policy...welcome to the North of Ireland!! In 2006 the oil age was just starting to show signs of the price volatility period. SO I suppose NIHE could be forgiven for having the policy worded as was. However, for DSD then to approve it in 2009, after the prices that was reached in 2008 is alarming! One begs to ask, what is the DSD Committee team at STormont doing and what are the civil servants not doing?

Then a good report by a respected journalist at our public floated tv station here in ulster done a great report (can be seen by going to www.rozellrenewables.com and clicking on the You Tube link). It highlighted the NIHE trials that are 3 years old!! Is there an anti-renewable strategy secretly lurking on a desk within NIHE.

I heard every political party and leader mention Renewables and the Green New Deal and Economy. Lets see who implemnets the changes and allows those in need of cheaper fuel to remove them from Fuel Poverty the choice of fuel sources.

You can remove fuel poverty but not by restricting fuel sources to highly flucuating fuels! Wood Pellets is local....manufactured in Enniskillen!! Maybe our Belfast Urbanites in DSD and NIHE do not know where Enniskillen is? Wonder why that is why one person asked me for the area code!

Go back to the definition - 10% of income to heat their home. So either you have a lower fuel cost fuel source, increase wages or increase the outside temperature. One has to wonder and think hard which is the easiest for NIHE and DSD. Of course its allow Wood Pellet systems into the Policy that cost the same to install as oil!! Maybe we will wait another 3 years for the policy to change.

Salaams