Planning barrier to UK solar could be removed

Share

UK trade body the Solar Trade Association (STA) has welcomed a government proposal to remove the requirement for commercial businesses to secure planning permission for PV rooftops of 50 kW to 1 MW in scale.

But with only 65 MW of large commercial rooftop systems – defined as 50 kW to 5 MW – installed in the UK in the 12 months to June, the STA says a lot more must be done to boost that segment of the PV market.

The STA is critical of the requirement commercial buildings have an energy performance certificate rating of at least band D and of ‘the rapid degression time' of FITS.

"Larger rooftop schemes still face more deployment risks than they should and they risk being deprived of resources even when they are highly cost-effective," said STA chief executive Paul Barwell in a press release issued by the organization today.

"We will continue to press DECC (the UK government’s Department for Energy and Climate Change) to comprehensively tackle the barriers to its rooftop revolution, set out in its Solar Strategy."

The announcement came after the government's Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) yesterday opened a consultation into several proposals aimed at streamlining the country's planning system.

Citing the identification by DECC of planning delays as a hurdle to solar deployment, in its recent Solar Strategy, the DCLG is proposing removing the need for planning permision for commercial rooftops up to 1 MW in size. The planning system currently waives the need for permission for systems up to just 50 kW in scale.

The planning consultation will close on September 26.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Solar modules now selling for less than €0.06/W in Europe

14 November 2024 Solar module prices reached a new low this week, says Leen van Bellen, business development manager Europe for Search4Solar, a European purchasing and...

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.