New homes will be required to have solar panels in England
New build homes in England will be required to fit solar panels as part of a series of changes which will be published later this year.
Speaking to the BBC, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the regulations will require developers to add panels unless the buildings fall under certain exemptions, such as being covered by shade.
The rules will be included in the Future Homes Standard, which will detail a wider plan for improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.
While the previous Conservative government had made a similar proposal, which stated that new build homes should have rooftop solar panels covering the equivalent of 40% of the building’s ground area
While more details will be made available later this year, Miliband said the idea was to take the proposal even further.
“The problem about the previous system was that it said you would have to have a certain percentage of coverage of solar panels, but if you couldn’t achieve that percentage,e you didn’t have to do anything at all,” he told the BBC.
“Under our plans, we are not going to say that. We are going to say even if you can’t hit 40% you will still have to have some solar panels, except in rare exceptional cases.”
The proposal comes after the government announced a new scheme to save businesses over £3 million by lowering their energy bills through cutting emissions this week.
Under the scheme, more than 600 small and medium-sized hospitality businesses in the United Kingdom will receive free energy and carbon reduction assessments, which the government said will help them to cut energy costs and improve productivity.
The trial scheme will be delivered by Zero Carbon Services and is aimed at helping restaurants, cafes, pubs, and hotels to keep more money in their pockets and continue to act as the hubs for their local communities.
It will support businesses to make cost-effective changes such as fixing insulation gaps, upgrading to low-energy lighting or changing heating settings, which the government said will add up to significant savings over the year.
