Keir Starmer’s Labour government unveils plans for a “rooftop revolution” today that will see millions more homes fitted with solar panels in order to bring down domestic energy bills and tackle the climate crisis.
The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, also took the hugely controversial decision this weekend to approve three massive solar farms in the east of England that had been blocked by Tory ministers.
The three sites alone – Gate Burton in Lincolnshire, Sunnica’s energy farm on the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire border and Mallard Pass on the border between Lincolnshire and Rutland – will deliver about two-thirds of the solar energy installed on rooftops and on the ground in the whole of last year.
Now, before Wednesday’s king’s speech, which will include legislation for setting up the new publicly owned energy company GB Energy, ministers are working with the building industry to make it easier to buy new homes with panels installed, or instal them on existing ones.
Ministers are looking at bringing in solar-related standards for new-build properties from next year.
At present, while formal planning permission is not required, there are restrictions on where and how high up on buildings they can be placed. There are also restrictions in conservation areas and on listed buildings. These may also be re-examined.
To which you reply: “not yet, but if/when the North Atlantic Drift Current turns off, it’ll feel like it”.
At some point I’m going to board over my loft and it does make sense to maximise the insulation before I do that.
Some of my double-glazing is reaching the end of it’s life and I figure I may as well update piecemeal to triple glazing but I haven’t looked into it.
I’ve also had a long chat with a mate who is a building services engineer about air-to-air heat pumps which make me think that is the way I should go.
So I suppose, I am slowly limping in that direction. I am hoping Labour have a Green New Deal that brings green energy at home back into focus and that might speed up my limping.