Building & Design

Royal seal of approval for UK clean tech legislation

This week saw formal Royal Assent being given to new UK legislation on energy, climate change and planning aimed at boosting renewables and clean tech.

The Climate Change Bill is one of the most ambitious in the world and commits the UK to an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050. Meanwhile, the Energy Bill included feed-in tariffs to help boost microgeneration.

This week the Chancellor Alistair Darling also announced an extension of the Renewables Obligation, which provides incentives for firms investing in renewable energy projects, to 2037 as part of measures designed to boost the economy.

The final part of the puzzle – planning – is also being tackled with the new legislation, which is designed to provide fair, predictable and timely decisions on major infrastructure such as renewable projects.

“We can begin to create the faster, fairer planning system we need to reduce our fossil fuel addiction and build up a new generation of renewable energy infrastructure sources like wind power,” said Communities Secretary Hazel Blears. “Many low carbon power sources will now get faster approval, and the country could save £300 million a year.”

In coming years, around a third of the UK’s electricity generation capacity will become obsolete. However, the current planning process can lead to very long decision times, particularly difficult for large renewable projects.

There is currently enough renewable energy projects stuck in the planning system to provide power for 1.5 million homes (around 2.7 GW).

“The problem in the UK is primarily one of planning,” said Steven Tindale of npower renewables at a meeting in London this week.

According to Chris Bennett of the National Grid, the new planning legislation will encourage renewables and power companies to engage with the local community sooner to help the passage of planning applications.

The new legislation will create an integrated planning system for major infrastructure so that decisions are made in under a year, says John Healey, the minister responsible for the bill.

A speeding up of the process could boost the UK’s attractiveness for renewables investment, which has slipped from a ranking of fourth in the world to sixth, according to Ernst & Young.

However, environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth says the legislation falls short of what is needed.

“The Planning Bill is not strong enough to ensure that climate change is properly considered in decisions about major projects such as airports, roads and power stations,” said planning campaigner Hugh Ellis.

Further information:
services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/planning.html
services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/energy.html
services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/climatechangehl.html
www.npowerrenewables.com/homepage/index.asp
www.nationalgrid.com/
www.foe.co.uk
www.ey.com/global/content.nsf/International/Home

28 November 2008

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