UK planning rules provide support for renewables
LONDON, England, 2004-08-18 (Refocus Weekly)
New UK planning rules state that regional and local development strategies “should contain policies designed to promote and encourage, rather than restrict, the development of renewable energy resources,” and local planning authorities should set out the criteria that will be applied in assessing applications for renewable energy projects.
Increased development of renewable energy resources is vital to facilitating
the delivery of the UK government’s commitments on both climate change and
renewable energy according to ‘Planning Policy Statement 22: Renewable
Energy’ (PPS22). “Positive planning which facilitates renewable energy
developments can contribute to all four elements of the government’s
sustainable development strategy.”
“Although wind energy is expected to make a significant contribution to
meeting our 10% renewable energy target by 2010, these policies will apply
equally to all other renewable energy technologies,” says planning minister
Keith Hill. “The development of a broad range of renewable energy resources is
vital in our fight against global warming and climate change.”
The new rules could demand that new buildings use a certain amount of green
energy, and help to overcome the barriers to receiving planning permission for
onshore windfarms and other green power facilities. The government believes that
renewable energy developments can be accommodated where the technology is viable
and when environmental, social and economic impacts can be addressed, the
document explains. Regional and local planning policies should be designed to
promote and encourage the development of renewable resources.
PPS22 updates planning rules from 1993 that did not consider renewable energy
facilities. It defines renewables as energy flows that occur naturally and
repeatedly in the environment, including onshore wind, hydro, photovoltaics,
passive solar, biomass, energy crops, landfill and sewage gas, and energy from
waste, but not energy from mass incineration of domestic waste. As the land use
planning system does not extend offshore, the policies do not apply to
developments for offshore renewables, nor does the statement cover combined heat
and power developments.
“Planning policies that rule out or place constraints on the development of
all, or specific types of, renewable energy technologies should not be included
in regional spatial strategies or local development documents without sufficient
reasoned justification,” and the federal government may intervene if it
considers that constraints are being proposed by local authorities.
“The wider environmental and economic benefits of all proposals for renewable
energy projects, whatever their scale, are material considerations that should
be given significant weight in determining whether proposals should be granted
planning permission,” and local authorities “should not make assumptions
about the technical and commercial feasibility of renewable energy projects”
such as identifying locations for windfarms based on wind speeds.
Regional strategies should include a target for renewable energy capacity that
are expressed as the minimum amount of installed capacity in megawatts or in
terms of the percentage of electricity supplied. The targets should be set for
achievement by 2010 and by 2020, and progress towards these targets should be
monitored by planning bodies on a regular basis and revised upwards if they are
met. “The fact that a target has been reached should not be used in itself as
a reason for refusing planning permission for further renewable energy
projects.”
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