Energy Act 2004

82 Microgeneration

(1) The Secretary of State—

(a) must prepare a strategy for the promotion of microgeneration in Great Britain; and

(b) may from time to time revise it.

(2) The Secretary of State—

(a) must publish the strategy within 18 months after the commencement of this section; and

(b) if he revises it, must publish the revised strategy.

(3) In preparing or revising the strategy, the Secretary of State must consider the contribution that is capable of being made by microgeneration to—

(a) cutting emissions of greenhouse gases in Great Britain;

(b) reducing the number of people living in fuel poverty in Great Britain;

(c) reducing the demands on transmission systems and distribution systems situated in Great Britain;

(d) reducing the need for those systems to be modified;

(e) enhancing the availability of electricity and heat for consumers in Great Britain.

(4) Before preparing or revising the strategy, the Secretary of State must consult such persons appearing to him to represent the producers and suppliers of plant used for microgeneration, and such other persons, as he considers appropriate.

(5) The Secretary of State must take reasonable steps to secure the implementation of the strategy in the form in which it has most recently been published.

(6) For the purposes of this section “microgeneration” means the use for the generation of electricity or the production of heat of any plant—

(a) which in generating electricity or (as the case may be) producing heat, relies wholly or mainly on a source of energy or a technology mentioned in subsection (7); and

(b) the capacity of which to generate electricity or (as the case may be) to produce heat does not exceed the capacity mentioned in subsection (8).

(7) Those sources of energy and technologies are—

(a) biomass;

(b) biofuels;

(c) fuel cells;

(d) photovoltaics;

(e) water (including waves and tides);

(f) wind;

(g) solar power;

(h) geothermal sources;

(i) combined heat and power systems;

(j) other sources of energy and technologies for the generation of electricity or the production of heat, the use of which would, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, cut emissions of greenhouse gases in Great Britain.

(8) That capacity is—

(a) in relation to the generation of electricity, 50 kilowatts;

(b) in relation to the production of heat, 45 kilowatts thermal.

(9) In this section—

• “consumers” includes both existing and future consumers;

• “distribution system” and “transmission system” have the same meanings as in Part 1 of the 1989 Act;

• “fuel poverty” has the same meaning as in section 1 of the Sustainable Energy Act 2003 (c. 30);

• “greenhouse gases” means—

  (a)

  carbon dioxide;

  (b)

  methane;

  (c)

  nitrous oxide;

  (d)

  hydrofluorocarbons;

  (e)

  perfluorocarbons;

  (f)

  sulphur hexafluoride;

• “plant” includes any equipment, apparatus or appliance.