by Lawrence Buckley
Good news for all households interested in having wind turbines or air source heat pumps for their homes. The Green Energy private members bill promoted by Peter Ainsworth, Conservative MP for East Surreyand supported universally by the Government and the main opposition front benches have received royal assent.
Bad news for those of you who’d like to do it this weekend, the legislation won’t come into force for six months.
However he basics of the bill will be welcomed by everyone interested in greening their home. The changes include:
- Wind turbines and air source heat pumps will not be require planning permission as long as they are below a certain size and do not produce a noise of over 45 decibels for the neighbours.
- Business, schools, hospitals and other non-domestic buildings can have microgeneration without planning permission including wind turbines up to 15 meters high.
It will also allow charging points for electric vehicles subject to size and siting considerations legal without planning permission.
This is a great step forward for making our homes more sustainable places to live. The government’s own figures suggest that up to 7 million homes could have some form of microgeneration installed by 2020, making those families and homes an important contributor to badly needed reductions in CO2 emissions.
