The government has announced the latest round of funding awards from its renewable heat scheme, confirming that 38 communities will share £3m of funding to support the roll out of domestic renewable heat technologies.

The funding was awarded yesterday under the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme, which is acting a forerunner for the launch of the full domestic RHI scheme next year.

The funding awards, which are being administered by the Energy Saving Trust, will result in households in 38 different communities installing renewable heating technologies like solar thermal panels, biomass boilers and heat pumps.

The projects will be managed by local not-for-profit charities and community groups and will completed by next summer.

“We need to transform the way we heat our homes to help keep bills down and cut carbon too,” said Climate Change Minister Greg Barker, adding that the funding would benefit around 1,250 homes.

“Community groups, with their enthusiasm, local knowledge and drive, need to be at the very heart of this revolution so it’s great to see so many groups across Great Britain getting on board.”

Energy Saving Trust’s Director for Local Delivery, Andy Deacon, added that the project could help demonstrate how community-scale deployments of clean technologies can help to reduce costs ahead of the launch next year of the Green Deal energy efficiency scheme and feed-in tariff style RHI.

“Local communities are at the forefront of the scheme and will play a vital role in learning how community buying networks could help make renewable heating more affordable for millions of British households,” he said.

The funding will be welcomed by developers and installers of renewable heat technologies who have become frustrated at delays to the full launch of the RHI, which promises to deliver a significant boost to the market.