How would you like to produce electricity for your home, do it in a way that is kinder to the environment, and get money from the National Grid into the bargain?

That doesn’t seem to be a bad deal. The Government last week announced details which would ensure that households and communities who install technology like small wind turbines and solar panels will, from April, be entitled to claim payments for the electricity they produce, and from the following year, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has published a plan for a similar scheme to be introduced in April 2011 to do the same for low carbon heating technology. This would be the first of its kind anywhere in the world.

The Clean Energy Cash Back starts on 1 April and introduces for the first time in this country a so-called feed-in tariff. This means that homeowners would get paid about 42 pence per kilowatthour (kWh) of electricity they produce from renewable sources like photovoltaic cells you put on your house roof.

According to the Department for Energy and Climate Change, a typical three bedroom house uses about 3,300 kWh of energy per year. It is possible that a renewable system could earn the homeowner about £900 a year and save a further £140 off their electricity bill. The income that is earned from the system will be tax free and linked to inflation and the costs of buying and installing the renewable energy source can be bought with an interest free loan from the Government, so it won’t be too many years before the system pays for itself and then generates a nice cash sum for the householder.

It would probably have a positive impact on the value of your house. House prices go up and down as a result of many factors, but the fact that the property can generate an income from a wind turbine or solar cells would I think have a positive impact upon the house price.

It will help the local economy too. Not only is Hartlepool and the wider North East economy fast becoming a centre of excellence for renewable energy, I think this sort of policy will generate (forgive the pun) a whole score of businesses and opportunities for employment with those firms who offer households the service of installing and maintaining this low carbon technology.

I think there are exciting opportunities, and I would hope that many households in Hartlepool would take advantage of this potential. Please have a look at the Energy and Climate Change website at www.decc.gov.uk for more details.