Big development in energy and sustainability as the announcement that The London Plan 2020 Draft Version is due imminently.
What is the London Plan 2020?
Its announcement is actually well overdue having been in the works now for several years. The Mayor of London wants our capital to be a zero carbon city, with zero waste, zero emissions from transport, green cover over 50% of the town and to have the best air quality of any city in the world. Ambitious? At QuinnRoss we think not. The technology to achieve these targets already exists it just requires a significant push by a greater authority, and this new plan should be it.
How will it affect my building?
If you are building a new development, residential or commercial, you will need to achieve a zero carbon development. You will have to use on site renewable technology, such as solar panels, to keep CO2 emissions as low as possible, at least 35% better than current Building Regulations. Any CO2 shortfall will result in a cash fee being paid to the local borough based on the amount of t/CO2 your development produces, therefore the more efficient the development is, the less you will pay.
What do they need money for?
The boroughs will use the cash payments to buy energy from renewable sources elsewhere in the country and to retrofit existing buildings to reduce CO2 levels as a whole. Its for the greater good.
Ok. Any other issues I should know?
Absolutely! The most notable of which are below:
-
New Energy Efficiency (EE) targets - All new developments must have a % improvement using EE, or more commonly known as passive, measures alone. EE or passive measures are energy reducing measures that don’t use energy themselves, such as highly insulated building constructions, Low U-value glazing, low air leakage rates, natural ventilation, lighting controls and a many more. Only after you have maximised these passive measures you then add on your low or zero carbon technology. Residential developments must be 10% better and commercial must by 15% better than building regulations using passive measures only.
-
Whole Life Cycle Carbon Assessments – These are now compulsory to accompany all energy strategies. This is a whole life cycle assessment of the development, assessing its CO2 emissions from construction to demolition. It must include all CO2 from the materials the development will be made out of, to the construction process, its energy consumption in use through its life to the energy consumed to demolish the asset.
-
Be ‘Seen’ – Monitoring your development will now be compulsory. Automated Building Management Systems (BMS’s) will be mandatory to collect building energy use data for the first 5 years of the development in use. This data will also have to be shared with the Mayor of London via an online portal.
When is this new London Plan due?
The London Plan is estimated to be released in March 2021.
This all sounds complicated! How can QuinnRoss Energy help?
For us this is no complication at all. We have been heavily involved in energy modelling for commercial and residential buildings for over a decade. We are also well versed in London Plan energy strategies, having produced many for an array of major development in London, and have extensive experience of collecting and organising the data from monitoring systems. We have also been advising clients on energy efficiency measures, new and existing, again for over a decade, and have been assessing whole Life Cycle Assessments (LCA’s) long before it became compulsory in BREEAM and this new London Plan. So, if you have a development and require a safe journey through London development, we are the only consultancy you need.
The London Plan 2021 has been released, head over to our latest post, here.
