Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) to Help Reduce Installation Costs?
July 29, 2008
It’s been announced that the Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks, has approved plans for a new quality mark to be known as the Microgeneration Certification Scheme to give consumers confidence in microgeneration systems.
The scheme will involve the independent verification of micropower firms, allowing them to promote their products and installation services with a special logo and is intended to provide consumers with reassurance that microgeneration systems are safe, reliable and really do produce the power they claim to generate which should encourage the take up of MicroGeneration.
Any MicroGeneration firms seeking support through government grant schemes like the Low Carbon Buildings Programme will need to be certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).
The Energy Minister was quoted as saying: “Households, businesses and communities can play an important role in reducing carbon emissions by generating their own electricity or heat from renewable energy sources.”
It is also hoped that ‘Having more certification bodies should make it cheaper for microgeneration firms to be certified’.
Apparently there are: “nearly 450 installer companies and over 30 product manufacturers (which) have already registered under the two-year development phase of the scheme”.
Hopefully, one of the medium term effects of this announcement will also be to help bring down costs for the public. By making it cheaper for installers to become certified, more companies will be encouraged to seek certification, proving a wider choice and at the same time helping bring down installation costs for the public through increased competition. Something that will benefit the installer, the public and the environment.
Posted in microgeneration
July 31st, 2008 at 6:28 am
This will be counterproductive and stifle invention. The only companies that will be certified will be those peddling off-the-shelf windmills and the like.
Microgeneration schemes should be generating green heat not electricity. My company will never seek accreditation because it will never receive it - too inventive you see!
November 27th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I am looking at joining the MCS, both as an installer and having our products listed on the scheme, it does not seem cheap nor is it easy to join. The BRE are a real pain to deal with and offer no useful help whatsoever. I suspect that the sceme is intended to be self-funding which means high charges for installers and manufacturers which will then be passed on to the consumer.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
The BRE can be a pain, but having accreditation is a good thing. There are too many cowboys that see ‘Green’ as the next goldmine. Already the Solar Thermal market is like a double glazing sale. Renewable energy is great, but the wrong choice in the wrong place sets us all back and costs the misinformed consumer a packet. We are proud to have MCS accreditations for Solar PV and Wind turnbines, and to have MCS partners for Solar Thermal and Air source heat pumps.
The cost are high though, but accreditation is now being deregulated, to others than the BRE, we’ll see if that is a good or bad thing?
June 1st, 2009 at 11:15 am
We are in full agreement with Ecoenviroments in that the BRE are a pain but having just gone through our MCS we are happy that we are going to be a highly professional company which is audited by an outside body to keep our standards high.These standards are set high to ensure the tax payers money is spent wisely and consumer protection is guaranteed !
We have one chance at making this massive task ahead of us work so lets make sure we do it right first time round hence the reason the MCS has been put in place.
December 8th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Having been an accredited grant approved installer since 2003 (Clearskies as was) last year we were accredited by the BRE as MCS approved this year we made the decision to go with the NICEIC to save money as we are a small family run company and every penny counts. Big mistake. They refuse to recognise our accreditation, experience and Grandfathers rights. So have basically taken away from us out accreditation that we have had since 2003 after years of hard work jumping through all the hoops and a 100% customer satisfaction record To say we are dumbfounded is an understatement. We feel we have been hoodwinked. At no stage did they tell us this would happen. Basically they are forcing us to go on a solar thermal course (conveniently they offer this course) if we want accreditation, this will be totally pointless but it ticks their box. BE WARNEDespecially if you have been previously assessed and approved by the BRE be very careful if you decide to choose another company especially if its the NICEIC you may find yourself several hundred pounds out of pocket. BRE everytime
December 18th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
CHEAPER!!! ha ha ha we installers and are going through a re-assessments and all our operatives now have to go on 5 extra course to get certified this year?? what extras do they want next year?. Who pays for this, the customer. We have installed over 2,500 m.sq installed correctly and have a lot of happy customers but that is now not good enough as we don’t have a piece of paper to say we can do it. The MCS scheme plays into the hands of the cowboys like the Gas industry it make the registered installers are so expensive as they have to tick so many boxes that people use cow boys as they are CHEAPER.