Community energy guide published: 'a step change' in community-scale renewable power generation required, says TCPA

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) and The Combined Heat and Power Association (CHPA) have published a joint best practice guide, Community energy: urban planning for a low carbon future. The guide, co-sponsored by national regeneration agency English Partnerships, suggests that a step change is needed in how electricity is generated and supplied, with a transition to decentralised energy and power based on low and zero carbon technologies.

To achieve zero-carbon communities through planning we must seek to address the unparalleled demand for new homes and the necessary accompanying infrastructure while at the same time tackling climate change,' says Gideon Amos, Chief Executive, TCPA. 'Nearly half of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions come from buildings, a quarter of these from our homes. When transport is factored in it becomes clear that energy demand and supply are heavily influenced by the built environment.'

'The provision of renewable energy by and for communities is an idea whose time has come and a resource that can help address the dual challenges of climate change and security of supply. Community energy sources including local small scale wind or solar or neighbourhood combined heat and power plants can mean people benefitting in real and financial terms from the provision of their own energy.

'Enabling people and communities to generate their own energy could also help to tackle poverty and is a much better option than subsidising unsustainable fuel consumption.

'There are opportunities for every household, school or factory, considering their location within a town or city, to become a power generator. Most UK residents live in suburban housing and these low densities areas are ideally suited for the deployment of micro-generation technologies, where the residents can profit from the electricity they generate buy selling excess back to the grid.

'University and hospital sites on the edge of city centres with high heat densities can be powered by district heating, complemented by other communally deployed renewable technologies, such as solar thermal collectors. Industrial estates, their existing uses and often exposed locations, can be ideal locations for larger energy generation projects, including those with significant visual impacts such as wind power and those requiring large movements of vehicles such as energy from waste and biomass heat and power generation.'

Drawing upon best practice, the joint TCPA and CHPA guide aims to help planners, developers, architects, urban designers and infrastructure providers in the public and private sectors develop better understanding of policy support for low and zero carbon energy solutions. The guide provides a practical vision of how our towns and cities can plan for the development of community-scale energy. Local Government has a key role to play in coordinating action, making full use of planning powers and acting as pioneers and champions for the development of decentralised energy networks. The guide demonstrates effective energy strategies and helps communities and other stakeholders plan for the delivery of community energy.

It is essential that we meet the challenge of reducing our reliance on fossil fuels by improving the sustainability of large-scale power stations and focusing on the role that smaller scale decentralised energy generation can play. A step change is needed in how we generate and supply electricity, making a transition to decentralised energy and power based on low and zero carbon technologies.

This creates a new role for local authorities, their communities and stakeholders to be sustainable energy pioneers, as set out in Planning Policy Statement 1 on climate change. Local authorities are significant purchasers of energy services and can therefore act as a catalyst for energy projects. Leading by example local authorities also have the potential for their portfolio of buildings to provide long-term supply contracts as security for community energy projects.

Planning and developing local energy solutions involves exploring which combination of technologies makes most sense at different scales – looking at the opportunities for new and existing building typologies and uses and the relationship of a town or city to its rural hinterland. For example, small-scale microgeneration technologies such as solar PV can be complemented by efficient forms of generation and distribution such as CHP and community heating networks.

There is a huge opportunity for local authorities to take ownership of their local area climate change targets and develop low and zero carbon solutions to meet them. In the end such approaches can help local neighbourhoods to mitigate and adapt to real climate change impacts such as more frequent flooding, drought and heat waves.

Planning provides a crucial tool to help us prevent further damage to our environment through the provision of secure and sustainable energy supply and generation.