Biomass heating firm reaches certification milestone as microgeneration set to grow

MCS certification came out of the Government’s Microgeneration Strategy, launched back in 2006, and is designed to provide protection for consumers in the small but growing microgeneration market. 

To achieve certification, Windhager’s products and its Austrian manufacturing process had to meet strict standards, and its quality standards, staff training, test facilities, as well as the materials it uses, were also scrutinised.

The company, which claims to have 25 to 30 per cent of the UK market for wood pellet and log gasification boilers, described the certification process as ‘rigorous’, but clearly considers the pay-off to be worth the effort.

Increasingly consumers wanting to access grants towards the cost of installing renewable technologies – for example through the Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) – can only do so if they use MCS approved (or equivalent) products and installers. 

It is also expected that future initiatives – such as the proposed stamp duty land tax relief for new zero carbon homes – are likely to use the MCS as a minimum standard requirement too.

The growing importance of MSC accreditation is reflected in the comments of Oliver Duckworth, director of Windhager UK, who said of the company’s MCS accreditation: “This has been a great step for Windhager UK and its future strategy in the growing UK biomass market [...] the MCS accreditation reflects Windhager’s commitment to UK customers and specifiers.” 

Windhager is one of only two companies to have achieved the MCS accreditation so far – and claims to be the only one to have its full range of wood pellet and log gasification boilers certified under the scheme. However a number of other manufacturers have their products accredited under the MCS’s predecessor scheme, Clear Skies.

A spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) said that it is hard to provide accurate figures for the current levels of microgeneration and biomass heat in the UK as a central registry – similar to the one managed by Ofgem for the Renewables Obligation (RO) and renewable electricity generators – does not exist. 

However, DECC estimates that just under one per cent of UK heat from biomass is probably “a fair figure” and that the UK currently has more than 100,000 microgeneration installations generating heat and/or electricity. Information based on the NEF (National Energy Foundation), the REA (Renewable Energy Association) and LCBP grants awarded, suggests that, at April 2009, there were between 750 and 1,000 wood pellet boilers and 200 wood pellet stoves installed in the UK.

More accurate figures will be available once biomass is included in the Government’s feed-in tariff scheme – due to start next April – which will provide cashback to those feeding their renewable electricity back to the grid.

The feed-in tariff scheme is expected to boost interest in microgeneration in general. However the Renewable Energy Association (REA) warned, last week, that the level of return the Government is currently proposing is insufficient to promote really widespread take-up.