Opinion

REI and MCS partnership

MCS is pleased to announce that we are now working in partnership with Renewable Energy Installer magazine. Supported by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), MCS has been developed over the past four years as an industry-led scheme. As such, we will be using this monthly column to keep you up to date with what is happening within the scheme, any important policy and legislative issues, what’s happening within industry, and any important technical updates. Renewable Energy Installer magazine is a well read and respected industry publication, so we are pleased to be able to work alongside them in this manner.

MCS is the Microgeneration Certification Scheme. It is a way of guaranteeing that microgeneration products bearing the mark, and the installation companies fitting them, meet robust standards. It was set up to help companies demonstrate to customers in a potentially bewildering market that they can be trusted to do a decent job. At the moment, for micro-scale (sub-50kW) electricity generators, the only way to access Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) is for the job to have been carried out by an MCS-certificated installation company. The same model will be followed when the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is launched to consumers, with the likes of solar thermal and heat pump installs sized below 45 kW eligible if the job is done by an MCS approved company. Installer certification entails assessing the supply, design, installation, set-to-work and commissioning of renewable microgeneration technologies.

The MCS website provides further information relating to installer and product certification, the associated consumer benefits, an up-to-date listing of Installation companies and products as well as general information about the scheme. Please visit the MCS website at www.microgenerationcertification.org.