20th June 2006

The government has today entered a call for Expressions of Interest in the Official Journal of the European Union for a framework agreement to spend the £50m additional funds announced for microgeneration in the Chancellor’s budget earlier this year.

The purpose of the programme is to secure permanent reductions in the cost of supplying microgeneration technologies, lasting beyond the end of the programme itself, and below current market prices.

Key features include:

• all microgeneration technologies are eligible;
• offerings will apply to installations in:
  • local housing authorities
  • housing associations
  • schools
  • other public sector and charitable bodies;
• an expectation that a significant number of orders will allow successful contractors to provide installations at an installed price (including maintenance agreements and warranty) lower than the current market price;
• both single and “more than one” technology proposals are acceptable;

Commercial properties will not be included (there have been suggestions they would be, but there are legal difficulties in so doing).

Expressions of interest should include answers to the following questions:

• Which technologies are you interested in providing?
• What would be the unit sizes (in terms of kWh output) you would be interested in providing? Could you contract for a range of sizes to allow final orders to be adjusted according to demand, or would the contract have to relate to a specific unit size in order to allow you to reduce costs?
• What is the minimum number of installations you would need to contract for to enable you to achieve a significant reduction in price? Above this what price-quantity trade-off do you believe it may be possible to achieve for the different technologies you are willing to provide?
• What is the nature of the service package you are interested in providing?
• When could you be in a position to start installations, and at what rate do you expect you could supply installations over the life of the programme.
• What grant levels would be required from the ?50m phase of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme to provide end-users with a realistic payback period, under what assumptions?
• Are there any end-users you are particularly interested in supplying, or does it make no difference?

Award Criteria

Value for money will be determined according to: