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The government offers a grant of 50% for charities, schools, and the public sector to install renewable energy.  However, only half of the money has been allocated and the government has announced it will close all applications in June 2009.

Shockingly, the projects must go through 'Framework Suppliers' to be eligible for the grants, and the government selected British Gas and E.ON to supply the grants!  Why has E.ON, which is building new coal power plants, been given the contracts for supplying renewables to charities?  And British Gas, that great bastion of rising gas bills, how can they be trusted to effectively install renewable technologies that will lower their profits in the long term?

British Gas actually has a vested interest in keeping people on gas and grid electricity, which is presumably why they have not even developed a website to promote the grant scheme!  The Low Carbon Buildings Phase 2 website is found here:

http://www.lowcarbonbuildingsphase2.org.uk/page.jsp?id=6

Apparently these contracts were issued through a competitive tender' i.e. British Gas paid the government for this privilege.  This seems to be shocking evidence of special interests, lobbying and corruption at the highest level.  If the contract had not been given to British Gas, we might have seen many more schools and hospitals with solar panels on today.

It can only be hoped that this story reaches those with the power to change it...