Tenants swap electricity bills for cheques

Tenants of Northern Ireland’s public housing provider should be getting quarterly cheques instead of electricity bills from now on. The Housing Executive has paid for a small wind turbine to be installed in their tenants’ garden as part of an innovative renewable energy project focused on isolated rural homes.

The amount of electricity generated by the turbine should be more than the amount used by the houses. The excess will be pumped into the National Grid and the tenants paid for their contribution. The Housing Executive said it has plans to extend the scheme so there will be yet more householders moving into the electricity generation scheme.