10% Renewables for New Buildings in Scotland?

New buildings in Scotland may soon require microgeneration to supply a proportion of their energy. This possibility is raised in the recently published document "Scottish Planning Policy SPP 6: Renewable Energy: Consultation Draft" that can be downloaded here.

The exact wording is:

"Consultation question: The Scottish Executive is minded to require planning
authorities to ensure that certain new developments include on-site renewable energy equipment which will reduce predicted annual CO2 emissions
by a given percentage. We would welcome views on adopting 10% as a minimum policy standard; on the developments it should apply to; and the manner of its implementation."

So the strength of this measure is still to be decided. If this applied to all new buildings then it would be a significant policy, if it applies to simply all commercial premises then it could still be important but if it is only a selection of large projects then the impact will be minimal.

This proposal comes shortly after the passing of the "Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill". This bill was one of a small number of private members bills to be passed into law during the past few years...basically Mark Lazarowicz a labour MP from Edinburgh put forward a proposal to promote micro-renewables throughout the UK, he did this directly to the house of commons rather than the usual route through parliamentary channels i.e in cooperation with the people at DEFRA and DtI. This unusual route only seceded due to the broad base of cross party support and the inadequacy of government action.

Thanks to Sustainablog for Highlighting this.

postscript; climate change, RenewablesA, NewsA

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