Energy, Sustainability and Carbon – Page 9

30 September 2026Read article →

Farm wind turbines: the permitted development limits

Wind turbine permitted development rights attach to a dwellinghouse, not to an agricultural holding. The limits that apply, and what a full application has to answer.

30 September 2026Read article →

Ground source heat pumps and borehole permitting

A closed loop array and an open loop borehole face very different regulation. One may need nothing from the Environment Agency; the other needs a licence and a permit.

30 September 2026Read article →

Energy evidence for a barn or outbuilding conversion

A barn conversion is a material change of use, so Part L applies in its conversion form rather than its new-build form. Traditional construction changes the target again.

Metering and monitoring commitments in an energy strategy

Monitoring conditions are discharged with meters, not paragraphs. The metering decisions taken at design stage, who reports afterwards, and what the data has to show.

Overheating risk in a retrofit: why the answer changes

Insulation and airtightness change a house in summer as well as winter. Screening the rooms at risk, the ventilation and shading options that survive an existing plan form.

Energy statements for purpose-built student accommodation

Purpose-built student accommodation is rarely assessed as dwellings. Settling the methodology, communal heat losses, occupancy assumptions and overheating before modelling starts.

Fabric energy efficiency and the glazing ratio trade-off

More glazing worsens the fabric figure, less glazing fails daylight, and south glazing risks overheating. Here is the order to work the three tests in, and how to write it up.

EV charging: Approved Document S and local policy

Part S sets minimum EV charge point provision for new buildings and major renovations. Local plan policy often asks for more. Here is how to work out which applies and how to draw it.

What an EPC does not prove in a planning application

Energy Performance Certificates are asset ratings produced from standardised models. Here is what they can and cannot evidence in a planning application, and which document answers an energy policy.

Discharging a district heating connection condition

The document that discharges a heat network condition is correspondence from the operator. Where no network exists, safeguarded plant space and a low temperature design take its place.

BREEAM at planning: scheme version, rating and condition

A pre-assessment estimates credits; only registration and certification deliver a rating. The version in force at registration is the one you are assessed against.

Renewables on a listed building and the section 16 duty

Section 16 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 decides a renewables application on a designated asset. Reversibility, siting order and quantified generation are what move a conservation officer.

SAP or SBEM: choosing the calculation for a mixed-use scheme

A mixed-use block needs both calculations. Here is where the dwelling boundary falls, how to weight a combined figure and how to handle plant serving both parts.

Part L and a material change of use: what actually applies

A conversion does not have to hit the new-build target emission rate. Here is what Part L requires on a material change of use, and where local policy goes further.

Retrofit or demolish: making the embodied carbon case at planning

Retention versus demolition is decided on a fair options appraisal. Here is how to set the boundary, evidence the structural case and present a result officers accept.

Heat network zoning and what it means for a planning application

The Energy Act 2023 created heat network zones and connection duties inside them. Here is what that means for scheme design, appraisals and the energy statement.

Energy statements where a local plan sets a percentage reduction

Two definitions decide compliance with a local plan percentage reduction: which emissions the target covers and which edition of Part L sets the baseline. Everything else follows.

Whole life carbon assessment: which modules a council expects

A whole life carbon total means nothing without its module coverage. What each lifecycle stage includes, where demolition sits, and the assumptions that decide the answer.

Be Lean, Be Clean, Be Green, Be Seen in a London energy statement

An energy statement for a London scheme has to work through the hierarchy in sequence, with separate modelling at each stage and a monitoring commitment that outlives the application.

Reading emission factors in a planning energy statement

Grid electricity now carries a far lower carbon factor than mains gas, which changed every percentage in an energy statement. How the baseline is set and which arithmetic errors officers spot.

Energy metering and the be seen reporting stage

In-use energy reporting depends entirely on the metering fixed at design stage. What the three reporting points require and how to make the obligation deliverable.

Renewable heat in a conservation area: what is possible

A heat pump at a house in a conservation area is usually permitted development if it avoids highway-facing walls and roofs. Listed buildings and article 4 directions change the answer.

Sustainability statement or energy statement: what differs

Councils ask for both because their local plans contain separate policies. The energy statement owns the carbon calculation; the sustainability statement owns everything else and cross references it.

Substation, capacity and the grid connection question

Grid capacity now sets the phasing of more schemes than drainage does. Ask the distribution network operator the capacity question before the layout is drawn, and put the substation in the application.