UKERC EDC: Publications

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Abstract:

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister ('the ODPM') has commissioned this research into Planning for Renewable Energy as part of its New Horizons research programme. The New Horizons programme aims to introduce new research ideas, develop innovative, cross-cutting approaches to research and offer a forward-thinking perspective on medium- to long-term policy issues pertaining to the ODPM.

The specific objectives of the Planning for Renewable Energy research have been:

To explore and identify how the planning system can 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 role1;

To explore and identify how local governance and engagement structures, particularly those in urban areas, can best involve and include energy issues - and in turn identify the role that renewable energy solutions might play as catalysts for urban and community regeneration.

The research programme was devised in May 2002 and the research was conducted over the course of eleven months, commencing in October 2002.

The research is especially timely because the results are able to inform the revision of Planning Policy Guidance 22 (renewable energy) and the accompanying documentation for the new Planning Policy Statement 22 (renewable energy). The research has also been able to take account of the Energy White Paper, Our Energy Future, Creating a Low Carbon Economy (2003) and The Sustainable communities Plan (2003), both of which were published during the course of the project.

Perhaps the single most important concluding remark for ODPM is to point out that its extensive responsibilities for the built environment mean that it cannot avoid a significant role in the development of policies on renewables over the course of the next five to ten years. Indeed, given the potentially vital role of the linkages between planning, regeneration and governance, and the ODPM's responsibilities across these areas, the Department could reasonably be considered to be the most important in helping the country to become a low carbon economy

This report is divided into the following sections: