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Construction industry up in arms over on-site energy proposals |
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27 May 2009, 9:41 PM
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Some sectors of the mainstream UK construction industry have reacted angrily to proposals from the European Parliament that apparently oblige all buildings to meet their entire energy needs on site by 2019. All new homes, shops and offices built in the European Union could have to meet tough "zero carbon" building standards from 2019 after the European Parliament voted to strengthen rules designed to ensure buildings generate renewable energy onsite.
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The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of proposals to strengthen the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which would require all new buildings to produce the same amount of energy they consume.
The proposals, similar to the UK's zero carbon targets, would also set a tighter 2016 deadline for compliance with the rules for public buildings, and impose new energy efficiency standards for all major building renovation projects.
Arianna Vitali Roscini, policy officer for energy conservation in buildings at WWF, explained that the rules would not force buildings to go off grid, but would require them to generate as much energy as they consume overall, taking energy from the grid at peak times, but feeding energy back from on-site generation technologies at other times.
The proposals also set out the principle that the buildings should generate the energy they need to comply with the rules on site using technologies such as solar panels, micro wind turbines and biomass systems.
However, Vitali Roscini said that the final version of the legislation was likely to be watered down and, as with the proposed UK rules, building firms could ultimately be allowed to comply by funding local renewable energy projects.
"We are expecting big opposition from some of the member states when this goes before the European Council later in the year," she admitted. "I would expect it to be watered down, but what is encouraging is that the principle is there and there is an acceptance that the technology and knowledge are out there to deliver genuinely zero carbon buildings."
Indeed, in the UK, moves are already afoot to water down the original requirement for buildings to generate power onsite, with the communities department proposing to allow developers to meet energy targets through off-site generation if they had exhausted other options.
And the industry reacted angrily to the EU proposals, with John Tebbit, industry affairs director of the Construction Products Association, calling the European Parliament's idea “gibberish”: “It goes against the idea that you can generate more energy from a big windmill in the North Sea than you can from lots of little ones in Brussels or Notting Hill. These people can add up their expenses, but they can’t work out energy flows.”
Chris Stubbs, director of engineer WSP, said the policy had serious implications for scheme viability: “It doesn’t account for the fact that more effective use of capital might be to construct a large-scale clean power generation plant.”
Roger Humber, strategic policy adviser to the House Builders Association, said the policy was “nonsense” and said he was lobbying the government over the issue.
He said: “The government has just begun to realise that the scale of renewable energy needed is greater than can be generated on site … For the EU to put a spoke in the wheel is hugely damaging.”
The Council of Ministers, which represents EU member states’ governments, will make a final decision on the plans over the summer.
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