Planning for Renewable Energy: Summary of a Research Study conducted for the New Horizons programme of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

Abstract:

<p>Against a policy background set principally by the Energy White Paper 2003 and the Sustainable Communities Plan 2003, Brook Lyndhurst's research work on "Planning for Renewable Energy" approached the issue of renewable energy from three perspectives: <bl> <li>Land use planning</li> <li>Urban regeneration</li> <li>Local and regional governance</li> </bl></p> <p>The particular objectives of the research were: <bl> <li>To explore and identify how the planning system could move from being perceived as a barrier to the implementation of renewable energy technologies, to a situation in which it is playing a positive and enabling role;</li> <li>To explore the role that renewable energy solutions might play as catalysts for urban and community regeneration;</li> <li>To explore the linkages and interdependencies between the domains of planning and regeneration through the processes and structures of regional and local governance.</li> </bl></p> <p>Our research suggests that the issue(s) of renewable energy is, in general, restricted to a small but enthusiastic minority of players in regional and local government. For the mainstream practitioner in land-use planning and urban regeneration, energy issues generally, and renewable energy issues in particular, have a low priority. </p> <p>Those practitioners with responsibility for renewables, while making some headway in forging links with regional planners, appear to operate discretely from regeneration practitioners at all levels and planners at the local level. As a result, no "critical mass" of concern has come about, so there has been no significant impetus for the development of a "community of interest" encompassing planning, regeneration and renewable energy personnel, at both regional and local levels.</p> <p>In the longer term, however, it would seem that if the UK is to achieve truly dramatic reductions in its emissions of carbon dioxide (as envisaged, most obviously, by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution), then a more radical and far-reaching programme of change will be required. </p> This summary contains: <bl> <li>Introduction</li> <li>Key Conclusions</li> <li>The Research Methodology</li> <li>Summary of Detailed Findings</li> <li>Detailed Recommendations</li> </bl>

Author(s):

Brook Lyndhurst Ltd