Stream 1 Grants: Trying to Apply

By John Swindells 29 May 2007 | Comment
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Our experience of trying to apply for the new round of Stream 1 grants has not been fruitful so far. In our application for a wind turbine, we are required to specify an invertor manufacturer and model, and six manufacturers are listed:
  • Magnetek SPA
  • Outback Power Systems Inc.
  • SMA Regelsysteme GmbH
  • SPS (Energy Equipment Testing Services Ltd)
  • Studer Innotec
  • Xantrex
Our Windsave product uses its own invertor, and this was confirmed by the Mark Group (installers). A call to the DTI Low Carbon helpline (0800 9150990) revealed that they are aware of the problem and a fix is being planned over the next few hours to make the invertor selection optional.

One thing the application asks for is the ex-VAT price. The turbine attracts 5% VAT, and the ex-VAT price (installed) for the WS-1000 is £1428.

One bit of good news for us is that the grants allocation is no longer budgeted monthly; the full lump of money is available, until used up.

13:15 - We have now made a successful application. 'Sue' on the DTI helpline said to select any invertor manufacturer/product to push the form submission through; this is completely contradictory to what we were told first thing this morning. Anyways, the grant offer means that we need to pay £1000 +5% VAT. Here is the final message:

Thank you for applying to the Low Carbon Buildings Programme. Congratulations, your application has been successful!

You will shortly receive an email containing details of your grant application. Please read this carefully and check that all grant details are correct.

13:17 - A call to the Mark Group to arrange an installation date reveals that they are waiting for the kit from Windsave, and will be informing customers directly to arrange an installation date. We need to call them in 2 weeks (13 June) if we haven't been contacted.

After this two-month suspension in grants, you'd think that Windsave would have everything ready to go! Delays delays delays....

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