Following on from here, I have been chasing BRE & CLG to clarify the situation. The sorry response is that no-one was really aware of the potential implications of this piece of policy. So it’s official, at this point it is not possible to include the power output from communal on-site wind turbines, even where connected via a private wire network.
I have been tasked by Ted King, Head of Building Regs at CLG, to formally write to all stakeholders highlighting the issues so that they can be considered (not necessarily resolved) during the revisions for SAP 2009/10 for the next Part L update. The good news is that this work is already underway to be ready for the consultation process in January 2009. So, no comfort for my client, but perhaps others will be able to avoid this.
For what it’s worth, I also contacted the BWEA to check whether they were aware of the situation, and no they were not but obviously very interested to make sure that their industry is not penalised in this manner in the future.
The fact that no-one was aware of the implications of this policy is either rubbish or frightening. Actually it’s frightening either way.
Great work Nick.
Rubbish, frighteneing and not that surprising, I’m afraid.
Yay for blogging though – do you think you would have got the same swift response 5 years ago? I suspect not. Some letters may have been written which no-one would have read. At least now stuff seems to be getting done. Or is my heady optimism premature…
[…] issue here by claiming that SAP already resolves it, but SAP doesn’t! For example, under SAP you cannot use a communal wind turbine regardless of whether it’s directly connected to dwellings or […]