Is The Carbon Trust up to its job?
September 4th 2007

Following a catalogue of confusing and contradictory dealings with The Carbon Trust, Managing Director of Fuel+ magnetic fuel system, Maxsys, Barry Singh spoke exclusively to Water, Energy & Environment (WEE) to call for closer examination as to whether The Carbon Trust is up to its role of enabling industry to cut carbon emissions.

Maxsys' frustration followed the apparent approval of its proven fuel treatment system for interest free loans.

Any technology with a proven track record should qualify for interest free loans; Maxsys' fuel treatment system is designed to save at least 5% on fuel and is verified by an ABB audit following every installation with Maxsys offering a money-back guarantee if savings are lower than 5%. To date, a refund had never been required.

In his interview with WEE, Singh outlines how The Carbon Trust approached him to offer support for his product, with the outcome that Maxsys invested heavily in targeting companies which met the loans scheme profile.

Simultaneously a company which had heard about Maxsys' technology (and unknown to Maxsys had applied for a Carbon Trust Interest Free Loan) contacted Maxsys for more information to support its application, subsequently received the Carbon Trust's funding.

However when another company, which had received support from The Carbon Trust in the past, and had received verbal assurance that it would receive a loan, applied for the loan its application was rejected.

When WEE went to The Carbon Trust with Singh's story, it put this inconsistency down to a procedural error, saying the procedure has been immediately tightened to remove the possibility of this happening again.

But more importantly for Maxsys, why had the application been rejected? The Carbon Trust based the rejection on the fact that it could not find "a suitably qualified independent expert to validate the energy-saving claims associated with the technology." To read the full story and The Carbon Trust's response, click here.

What are your experiences of The Carbon Trust? Have you ever approached the trust for an interest free loan? How was your application processed? What was the outcome?

Email us with your thoughts and experiences.

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