last updated 1st December 05
By 4ecotips

CSE lands contract to bring renewable energy to the capital

The Centre for Sustainable Energy has landed an exciting contract with the London Energy Partnership. The project, 'Towards zero-carbon development', is funded by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Mayor of London.

The CSE will be working in partnership with the planning department of the Borough of Merton, one which helped pioneer many of the policies that are now central to low-carbon development planning.

The work springs from the Mayor of London's Energy Strategy - 'Green light to clean power' - which aims to reduce London's contribution to global climate change, tackle the problem of fuel poverty and at the same time promote London's economic development through renewable and energy efficient technologies.

The Mayor's Energy Strategy includes a target of at least one zero-carbon development in each of the capital's 33 boroughs by 2010. It expects boroughs to identify site(s) suitable for such development and include these in their local development documents, and to subsequently use their powers as landowners or partners to bring the projects forward.

There is currently a lack of guidance available to boroughs on how to do this, and CSE's task is to produce a resource pack for the boroughs and other London bodies that will address such issues as:

• What constitutes zero- and low-carbon developments?
• What sort of planning policies might be appropriate and enforceable?
• How should suitable sites be identified?
• What other mechanisms, processes and arguments can be used to help bring about development of such sites?