British Gas Promotes Green Energy Courses

British Gas has revealed that it is increasingly important for its workforce to have completed green energy courses.

Gearóid Lane, managing director of communities and new energy at British Gas, told the Telegraph that plans by the new Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition are likely to result in an increased demand for domestic renewable power appliances.

Gearóid Lane claims that government proposals will help an increasing number of households buy environmentally friendly appliances such as air and ground source heat pumps, biomass boilers, solar-thermal water heaters and combined heat and power plants.

The Conservatives' 'Green Deal' scheme and the Liberal Democrats' 'Eco Cashback pledge' set out plans to help households pay for green energy equipment and this could stimulate the demand for eco-savvy plumbers and electricians, according to Mr Lane.

Mr Lane told the newspaper that British Gas are ensuring that its workforce have taken the necessary green energy courses to enable them to meet the demand from its customers to install renewable power generation equipment.

British Gas revealed it is hiring new employees and retraining existing engineers through green energy courses to form a 1,100-strong home insulation division by the end of next March.

He told the Telegraph: "There's no way this capacity would have been created unless we see substantial demand for skilled engineers, capable of installing and maintaining the full range of new technologies."

British Gas recently announced that it would create 80 full time jobs at a new insulation depot in Reading, which will focus on the installation of cavity wall and loft insulation in homes and businesses.

Head of insulation Wayne Smith said that is it was important that the business' workforce had passed green energy courses to acquire the relevant knowledge.

"There is much talk about utilising green technologies and cutting our energy usage, but we can only do this if we have enough people with the right skills," he added.

Inquiries about renewable heat sources have already been generated by the previous government's 'feed-in tariffs' scheme, said Mr Lane.

Feed-In Tariffs were introduced by the Labour government in a bid to increase the level of renewable energy in the UK towards a target of 15 per cent of total energy from renewables by 2020.

The Warm Homes, Greener Homes Strategy was launched recently with the aim to insulate six million homes by the end of 2011, insulate all practical lofts and cavity walls by 2015 and to have offered seven million eco upgrades by 2020.