To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of links between air temperatures and the level of payments under the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive in each month since the start of that scheme.

Non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) installations are paid on a quarterly basis. Applicants are required to submit heat meter readings every 3 months from the date when the (accredited) application was submitted. The meter readings are used to measure how much heat was generated in this period, which is used to calculate the level of payment.

Using the quarterly data collected, we have assessed the seasonality of renewable heat used in the scheme, using natural gas demand as a comparator – see Chart 1 attached. Our assessment shows that the amount of renewable heat produced under the non-domestic RHI correlates to the variation of gas demand. This suggests that demand for heat under the RHI varies with season to the same pattern as traditional fossil fuels.