As you are aware the government has introduced a certification program for sustainable energy products and services. The ‘Micro-generation Certification Scheme’ (or MCS), the program is designed to protect customers by ensuring good quality in both products and installation. The scheme works by putting manufacturers and installers through an inspection process in which the applicant has to demonstrate a certain level of competency in the technology they offer, provide a documented, quality management process and show an example of a finished product or installation. In order to incentivise the industry to sign up to the certification scheme, the government has declared that customers may only apply for grants or feed-in-tariffs if their system is entirely covered by MCS which means.
There is little point in buying an installation without MCS accreditation
In order to claim the UK solar feed-in-tariff arriving this April, you have to install solar panels that have been through the MCS process.Or in the case of other technologies such as air source heat pumps, the renewable heat incentive tarriff will qualify, which is due 2011.
At this stage however, few manufacturers have obtained MCS accreditation for their products. In many cases it is simply because they haven’t heard of the UK’s MCS program yet. In other cases,haven’t been informed that clear skies is no longer applicable or simply found the whole process too expensive and time consuming.
