Run Services Latest News
Zero-carbon compromise – U-Turn or realism ?
News from Run-Services
No Comments »The government’s watering down of the zero-carbon targets for new housing has met with much criticism. Richard Baines, head of sustainability at Black Country Housing Group, believes that it simply represents a more pragmatic and realistic approach to the problem of cutting carbon emissions. Here he outlines the new zero carbon definition and its impact on providers.
“The Government has now set out its definition of zero carbon homes in its recent Plan for Growth. In this anticipated climb down, new dwellings will no longer count the energy used by appliances such as cookers and TVs when measuring the carbon emissions of a property and, therefore, developers will also no longer be expected to offset these emissions either onsite or offsite from 2016.
“The aim is that new homes will still be ‘zero carbon’ by 2016 but only in respect of heating and lighting, i.e. the CO2 target for Code level 5 rather than Code level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.
“I do believe that the government’s changes are a pragmatic and logical step for UK housing. Code level 6 was always going to be unrealistic, on most housing-only sites, because the technology for on-site generation of low/zero-carbon electricity is not yet cost effective in most locations. Housing developers don’t yet develop mixed-use sites where the technology could work. This is largely because biofuels are only carbon neutral at the point of growth and solar technologies are not sufficiently energy-intensive or constant.
“However, the new changes to zero carbon do not remove the imperative to design and build “super-insulated” homes that are air tight; very well insulated and provided with managed ventilation. Nor do they mean that we don’t need to install proven and affordable renewable technologies such as solar water heating, heat pumps and solar photovoltaic electricity generators where practicable.
“The ‘holy grail’ of net zero carbon is currently not practical or financially viable.
“While this could be described as a Government U-turn, Code level 6 CO2 targets were always unworkable on most sites. We have ended up with a pragmatic solution that can still save carbon and is more deliverable by landlords.”
