What is Microgeneration?

Microgeneration is the production of heat or electricity by individual households and small businesses. Microgeneration technologies are low or even zero carbon and allow householders and business owners to generate their own sustainable heat and/or electricity.

Microgeneration comes in various forms. There are two categories of solar powered technologies; photovoltaic (PV) systems, that produce electricity, and solar thermal systems to provide hot-water and sometimes space heating. Ground Source Heat Pumps use energy stored in the ground for space heating and micro-Combined Heat and Power (micro-CHP) look and operate in a similar way to conventional gas boilers – except that they provide electricity as well as heat. Micro turbines provide electricity, either powered by the wind or naturally flowing water (hydro power). Hydrogen powered fuel cells designed to provide heat and electricity at a commercial scale are currently being developed.

So far, solar thermal technologies have experienced the highest levels of uptake (90,000 installations in the UK - Element Energy, 2008) but new financial incentive schemes are likely to transform the market in coming years.