Installing Renewable Energy in New Buildings workshops

February 2008

Copies of the presentations from the workshops are available below.

Increasingly new buildings are being required to consider including onsite renewable energy. Local planning policy is adopting renewable energy targets for new developments & the national zero carbon new homes policy targets require reduced CO2 emissions from new dwellings, with the Government indicating that a similar policy is likely for new non-residential buildings. Meanwhile, a growing number of clients are looking for lower running costs &/or are concerned about the environmental performance of their buildings.

The workshops included:

• A summary of the latest national, regional & local policies on renewable energy in new buildings.

• Practical information from local authorities on how to address renewable energy targets in planning applications.

• Details of the grants, support & training available.

• A detailed case study of the new Okehampton Rural Business Centre  – a development of 16 offices & business units which has biomass heating, solar PV panels & a wind turbine providing at least 60% of the development’s energy needs - with presentations from the project’s client, architect, engineer, QS & main contractor.

The workshops were organised by the Devon Sustainable Building Initiative (DSBI), Envision & Future Foundations on behalf of Renewable Energy 4 Devon (RE4D), a partnership that provides independent renewable energy advice & support within Devon.

For copies of the presentations from the workshops please click on the links below. All presentations are in PDF format. Please note that some of the presentations are very large.

National & regional policy context (1.3MB)

Gareth Walton, Director, Devon Sustainable Building Initiative

Local policy context (7MB)

Alistair Macpherson, Environmental Planning Coordinator, Plymouth City Council

Local policy context (1MB)

Andrew Austen, Lead Officer Planning Policy, North Devon District Council

Grants, training and support (1MB)

John Baker & Melanie Sealey, Project Manager, Renewable Energy 4 Devon (RE4D)

Case study – Okehampton Rural Business Centre

• The client’s perspective (2MB)

Tracy Windemer, Borough Engineer, West Devon Borough Council

• The architect’s perspective (10.5MB)

Ian Hodder, Principal Architect, SMC Penrose Architects

• The engineer’s perspective (1MB)

Nick Sendall, Project Engineer, Halcrow Yolles

• The QS’s perspective (2MB)

Adam Ferguson, Quantity Surveyor, Nisbet LLP

• The main contractor’s perspective (2MB)

Steve Simmonds, Construction Team Leader & Nick Ford, Site Manager, ROK