Planning for Renewable Energy in Worcestershire Research Paper

3. POLICY CONTEXT ● Planning for Renewable Energy in Worcestershire3.6 Delivering a percentage target forenergy generation in new development isan established and successful means ofsecuring reductions in carbon emissions.Many local authorities throughout thecountry have already adopted such arequirement, following the pioneeringplanning policy of the London Borough ofMerton, which became known as the'Merton Rule' 7 . It has now beenestablished at a national level that thoseauthorities without these requirementsneed to ensure that their LDFs makeprovision for such a policy:"Planning authorities should[inter alia]:- expect a proportion of theenergy supply of newdevelopment to be securedfrom decentralised or lowcarbonenergy sources".Extract from paragraph 20, PPS13.7 Merton have estimated the cost ofcomplying with the policy to be around3-4% of the overall build cost. Homeswith renewable energy technologies areable to offer an added attraction tohouse-buyers compared with other homeson the open market, and may be able tocommand premium prices.3.8 Requiring on-site renewablesensures that energy efficiency ismaximised, as it is usually cheaper toinstall energy efficiency measures thanrenewable technologies. By requiring acertain percentage of a building's carbonemissions to be met by renewables, it islogical that developers will seek tominimise these emissions from the outset.This should mean that energy efficiency isgiven greater consideration, as the targetemissions reduction will decrease in linewith the efficiency of the building.3.9 The technical appraisal of on-siterenewables schemes can be complex.Development of a toolkit that can be usedby both developers and Local AuthorityDevelopment Control officers can helpmake this process easier to understandby providing a systematic, step-by-stepguide. Such a toolkit has already beenproduced for London authorities andoffers a comprehensive guide to theprocess (see Further Reading, pages75 - 77).7"All new non residential developments above athreshold of 1,000sqm will be expected to incorporaterenewable energy production equipment to provide atleast 10% of predicted energy requirements" (PolicyPE.13, London Borough of Merton UnitaryDevelopment Plan, adopted October 2003). The rulehas since been adopted and modified by other localplanning authorities and usually incorporates bothresidential and non-residential developments.6Technical Research Paper