Renewable Energy Study

Stafford Borough Council, together with the other Staffordshire authorities including the County Council, have recently commissioned specialist consultants to undertake a study assessing the potential for generating renewable energy in Staffordshire. The aim of the study is to create a county-wide evidence base to underpin future planning policies that will maximise the potential for low carbon development and renewable energy generation in Staffordshire.

The report recommendations will be translated into a policy in The Plan for Stafford Borough, setting out the requirements for energy efficiency, low carbon development and renewable energy generation. The study can be viewed here

Individual site strategies

In addition to the Renewable Energy Study, four development site energy strategy studies were conducted to provide ‘worked examples’ of how a range of schemes would achieve a range of carbon standards, with the objectives being:

Review the potential for energy efficiency and renewable energy for the four development sites, which were selected as examples that illustrate typical forms of development across the study area
Test how these example development sites might meet different carbon standards and consider cost and other implications
Highlight the key considerations at the planning stage for compliance against sustainable energy / carbon standards; and
Demonstrate the approach to assessing compliance against carbon standards for new developments.

You can view the report looking into these worked examples by clicking here.

Regional Study

Telford & Wrekin Council, on behalf of West Midlands Councils and a range of partners, commissioned SQW, Maslen Environmental and CO2 Sense to undertake the Capacity Study on Renewable Energy for the West Midlands.

The project aims to provide analysis and decision support to ensure that authorities in the West Midlands are able to deploy renewable energy in time to meet the UK's 2020 targets. The report can be viewed here