Government's definition of zero carbon homes 'must change' » Housing » 24dash.com

The UK Green Building Council has released its report 'The Definition of Zero Carbon' produced by its zero carbon task group.

Launched in December 2007, the group brought together a range of expert stakeholders, following concern that the current definition of zero carbon - which excludes the use of off-site renewables – threatened Government’s ambitious housing targets and created confusion amongst engineers, architects and clients.

The report releases new modelling that shows the current definition is not achievable on up to 80% of new homes.

Therefore, if Government wants to maintain its housing delivery targets of three million new homes by 2020, without watering down the level of carbon savings, the definition of zero carbon must change.

UK-GBC recommends that as part of the definition of zero carbon:

1. All new buildings must meet strict minimum energy efficiency standards, both in terms of the building design and household appliances where supplied by developers.
2. All new buildings should seek to mitigate carbon emissions from energy use on or near the development. Where this is not possible, a minimum level of carbon mitigation must be met (e.g. 100% regulated energy).
3. Above this threshold either:
• Off-site solutions could be allowed, without requiring private wire networks, provided that they are demonstrably additional and have been built specifically to deliver the energy needs of the development.
or
• The developer can pay into a ‘Community Energy Fund’ that will ensure equal or greater net carbon savings are delivered through new installations. The price of paying into the fund should be set at a margin above the cost of community-scale solutions so as to clearly incentivise the installation of on-site or local measures first.

Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK-GBC said: “Government’s level of ambition is spot on and should be supported 100%. This is not about dumbing down or abandoning the concept of zero carbon.

“This is about ensuring the same high level of carbon savings, but allowing developers more flexibility in how to get there to deliver mainstream, zero carbon homes in the numbers required.

“The solutions we are pointing to are designed to ensure energy demand reduction always comes first and on- or near-site renewables should be the focus for meeting energy needs.

“Our proposed definition recognises off-site renewables could play a part, and also gives a big boost to community-scale technologies. This would have the added benefit of enabling much-needed carbon reductions in the existing stock, by enabling the distribution of low or zero carbon heat through district networks.

“There is plenty more work to do, and we look forward to Government’s response. But we’ve taken the first step along the road of delivering new homes in high volumes, that are zero-carbon, affordable and great quality places to live.”

Mark Clare, Chief Executive of Barratt Developments said: “The value of this report is reflected in the high degree of consensus reached by many different stakeholders, who come at this complex issue from different angles.

“We’ve successfully established some key principles, which we hope to see fed into Government’s consultation on the definition of zero carbon this summer.”