Planning plays a critical role in delivering a clean, secure and affordable energy system.
With funding from The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the Local Net Zero Hubs and GBE have partnered with Regen to produce guidance and training to support local authority planners to make confident, consistent and timely decisions on low carbon energy, storage and network infrastructure applications.
Local planners are seeing a growing volume of complex and technical applications for ground mounted solar, battery storage, onshore wind and electricity network infrastructure. These projects are essential for decarbonising the grid, strengthening energy security and delivering affordable power.
Local planning teams are often stretched, with limited time and capacity to keep up with evolving policy, technical standards and best practice.
The new guidance has been developed to:
- Equip planners with up-to-date, practical information to assess applications confidently and consistently.
- Provide clear accessible resources that demystify technical applications.
- Share learning through case studies and peer discussion, including insight from industry and developers.
- Support local authorities in delivering the UK’s climate, energy, and economic ambitions.
The guidance is available on this link and contains specific guides on:
- Onshore wind
- Ground-mounted solar
- Battery Energy Storage Solutions (BESS)
- Energy system infrastructure.
The guidance will also shortly be published on Net Zero Go.
