Energy Efficiency and Conservation |
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The Government is undertaking a feasibility study to examine the potential for making the Thames Gateway a low carbon development area. The study looks at energy use in buildings, transport and logistics, water production and distribution, and waste management. The findings of the study are expected in late 2007.
The Government has also recently consulted on a Planning Policy Statement on Planning and Climate Change. It proposes that planning authorities should assess the area’s potential for accommodating renewable and low carbon technologies, including for micro-renewables to be secured in new residential, commercial or industrial development. In particular planning authorities should:
- Expand existing decentralised energy supply systems and develop new opportunities for decentralised energy from renewable and low carbon energy sources
- Ensure a significant proportion of energy supplied to substantial new development is gained on-site and renewably and / or from a decentralised, renewable or low carbon energy supply.
It is intended that Kent Thameside should take a lead in minimising greenhouse gas emissions resulting from new development. Northfleet Embankment is proposed as a ‘low carbon’ flagship scheme, and other partners are actively investigating the use of decentralised low carbon energy supplies and combined cooling heat and power schemes(CCHP).
Web links:
The Carbon Trust
Energy Saving Trust
Code for Sustainable homes
Kent Sustainable Business Partnership (KBSP)
ReMade pioneering new markets for waste
One Planet Living
‘The benefits of strong and early action (on climate change) far outweigh the economic costs of not acting’.
The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change’ H.M.Treasury 2006.
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