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Discharge of condition - energy

If you plan on using renewable energy sources in your renovation or new build, a planning condition will be placed on your application. In order to discharge this, you will need to show the following: 

  • the energy demand of the proposed building
  • the % of the energy demand of the building met by the proposed renewable energy equipment
  • the location of the proposed renewable energy equipment
  • the product details of the proposed renewable energy equipment

Exceptions

Please note that the following submissions will not meet our conditions for renewable energy generation:

  • the use of a fabric first principle instead of micro renewable technologies 
  • the use of log burners 

If, for any reason, the cost of complying with an energy condition makes the scheme financially unviable, you will need to justify this by submitting clear evidence before we will agree to a lower provision of renewable energy.

Code for Sustainable Homes

The Code for Sustainable Homes was an environmental assessment framework for evaluating the sustainability of new build homes from 2006 to 2015.

Although abolished in 2015, following clarification through the National Planning Practice Guidance, we have now reinstated our requirement for Code for Sustainable Homes.

This means that we require energy performance standards for new housing or the conversion of buildings into dwellings, equivalent to Level 4 of the Code. This equates to a 19% improvement on Part L (Conservation of Fuel and Power) of Building Regulations (2013).

How to meet the requirement

In order to meet this requirement, you will need to submit a Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) compliance

This will show calculations for:

  • how the building(s) will achieve an improvement of 19% on Part L Building Regulations (2013)

Your calculations will need to show the improvement between your baseline target emissions rate to your dwelling emissions rate or building missions rate. This figure (if not a residential dwelling) will need to be 19% lower than the target emissions rate.

More detail can be found in the Creating Sustainable Building and Places SPD (2021). See Appendix 2 for an example of an SAP compliance report. 

Additional information

  • guidance on energy statements for inclusion in planning applications
  • section 11 of the 'Creating Sustainable Buildings and Places in North Somerset' planning document. 

To discharge energy conditions from your planning permission, please apply and pay using the Planning Portal website.