Tag Archives: Photovoltaics

September 2013: The GLA have recently produced their latest update on how the energy and climate policies in London’s spatial planning strategy – the London Plan – have helped drive forward the development of lower carbon buildings in the capital. The new 2013 report – along with previous years studies – can be downloaded here. An earlier post here provides some details on these reports.

The study ‘Energy Planning: Monitoring the implementation of London Plan energy policies in 2012‘ provides an analysis of the energy assessments relating to all finalised (stage II) planning applications determined from 1 January to 31 December 2012. As the Executive Summary of the report sets out “London planning authorities must consult the Mayor on all planning applications that are of strategic importance to London . For each planning application referable to the Mayor, an energy assessment is required setting out how the development will meet the London Plan energy policies. Following the order of the Mayor’s energy hierarchy, each energy assessment is required to set out how the development will:

• Use less energy
• Supply energy efficiently
• Use renewable energy”

The analysis highlights how the London Plan’s policies are making significant headway in helping drive forward the development of more energy efficient, climate-friendly buildings in London. Some of the findings include:

• High levels of energy demand reduction achieved with developments exceeding the requirements of Building Regulations through energy efficiency alone. The associated investment of circa £32 million will help to reduce consumers’ energy bills.
• Circa £20 million of investment in new, high efficiency combined heat and power (CHP) plant able to produce 29MW of electricity and a similar amount of heat.
• 74MW of cumulative CHP electrical capacity has been secured through the planning process since 2010 to the end of 2012, broadly equivalent to the capacity required to supply 150,000 homes.
• Circa £133 million of investment in heat network infrastructure for approximately 53,000 communally heated dwellings
• Continued investment in on-site renewable energy systems, including approximately £16 million to provide circa 87,000m2 of photovoltaic solar panels.