The pay as you save (PAYS) scheme is an effective way of making Britain's homes more energy efficient and to drive down the cost of bills, according to an industry expert.
PAYS allows homeowners to install microgeneration technologies and, instead of providing funding upfront, use the savings on future
home energy bills to repay the cost of them.
Gordon Miller, founder of whatgreenhome.com, believes the scheme is "fabulous" and "very promising".
He also suggests that, should there be a change of government in the general election later this year, the PAYS project should remain in place.
The government is currently only trialling PAYS, while its feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme is due to come into effect in April.
Both will make the generation of
green energy easier and more affordable, reducing reliance on traditional fuels such as
gas and electricity.
Mr Miller believes the latest batch of schemes will be the ones to take off on a large scale in the UK - primarily because of the financial incentives on offer to switch to green energy.
He says: "People will essentially get an interest-free loan, depending on which scheme they adopt. If they adopt one where it is an interest-free loan, you pay back the capital based on the saving you make on your energy bill and that will be fabulous. That would be a great scheme."
PAYS was initially announced on December 7th last year - being timed to coincide with the Copenhagen climate summit.
The government revealed that hundreds of homeowners had been invited to trial the scheme, which would be rolled out across a larger area if successful.
Households in Birmingham, Stroud, Sunderland and the London borough of Sutton have been selected to make up the group of 500, which will be the first to test the £4 million project.
