govt. consultation on microgeneration/electric cars

[mobbsey]

The consultation report is at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publicati ... ectriccars

Pity they haven't thought through the wider energy and resource implications of electric cars though!

There's two other related consultations --

#"Small-scale renewables and Low-carbon technology Non-domestic permitted development review: Summary", at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publicati ... alesummary

# "Review of permitted development for charging points for electric cars", at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publicati ... carsreview


P.

http://www.planningresource.co.uk/bulle ... enewables/

Healey launches consultation on small-scale renewables

Michael Donnelly, PlanningResource, 17th November 2009


The government has launched proposals to relax planning rules on small-scale renewable power installations and electric vehicle charging points.

Under the plans, published today for consultation, homeowners developers and businesses would able to install on-site wind turbines, solar panels and other energy generating devices without applying of planning permission.

The new rules would also allow councils and electric car drivers to install electric car charger points on streets and in car parks without making a planning application.

Wind turbines up to 15metres high would be permitted, in locations like industrial estates or agricultural areas.

However the government says the relaxation of planning rules would come with strict caveats about size, noise levels, location and the visual impact on an area.

Planning minister, John Healey, said: "Our planning rules need to catch up with changing technologies and allow people to take the small measures that make big differences. Not only could this save up to hundreds of pounds in fuel bills, they will also help the environment.

"At the same time we need tough rules so that permitted development does not become a nuisance, so I am putting in place strong safeguards in relation to noise levels, size, location and the potential impact on an area.

"As a country, nearly half of our carbon emissions come from buildings. That’s more than roads, railways and airports combined. To stand a chance of tackling climate change, we need nothing less than a national crusade with everyone able to play their part to offset carbon emissions."

Kelvin MacDonald, policy adviser at the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), said: "This is a positive step on the path towards making our energy supply more secure and less carbon-intensive and micro-renewables such as solar and heat pumps have an important role to play.

"It's also important that the proposals take account of local circumstances and historic buildings. It will be important for planners to assess these proposals and provide their input to government to ensure the new measures are both workable and flexible enough to adapt to fast-changing renewable technologies."

Friends of the Earth's executive director Andy Atkins said: "These schemes would be given an even bigger boost if the government improved on its plans to introduce a feed-in tariff next year - homes, businesses and communities must be paid more generously than currently intended for the green energy they generate.

"Climate change must be at the heart of planning policy - the UK could be a world leader in green energy, reaping the substantial economic benefits this would bring."

[biffvernon]

Nemesis by Dale Vince and Ecotricity:
http://zerocarbonista.com/

[fifthcolumn]

Although I love the idea of electric cars, I think most electric car enthusiasts are missing the point:

From a systems perspective, the best possible solution isn't a big push for electric cars.

It's a big push for electric buses and electric trucks.

Luckily those bases are covered.

Electric buses exist and so do medium duty electric trucks.

In a pinch, I'm reasonably sure that we could build a couple million electric buses and trucks easier than we could build forty million electric cars.

[biffvernon]

Surely it's not an either/or. From the rural point of view it's hard to see how no cars can work. A hundred years ago there were many more rural railways and it would be quite possible to replace them with light electric trains - but even in the railway heyday, folk used horses and carts and electric cars might replace that role.

Dale Vince's Nemesis is, of course, just a toy, but if it gets people associating electric with something other than milk floats it serves a purpose.

[fifthcolumn]

Surely it's not an either/or. From the rural point of view it's hard to see how no cars can work. A hundred years ago there were many more rural railways and it would be quite possible to replace them with light electric trains - but even in the railway heyday, folk used horses and carts and electric cars might replace that role.

Dale Vince's Nemesis is, of course, just a toy, but if it gets people associating electric with something other than milk floats it serves a purpose.

You're right biff, it's not an either or. But from a risk management perspective we have a large challenge in attempting to maintain the status quo of 40 million private cars in the face of a potential collapse of fuel supplies.

If we have 10 years we could probably do it with a concerted effort.
I believe we have less than 5 years.

In the long term I reckon we WILL see something like current business as usual, but based around electric cars (because they WORK) but they are quite simply too expensive right now and they are going to require an upgrade in the national grid, a lot more generating capacity and millions of charging points and battery swap stations.

A more reasonable (and DOABLE) goal is to shore up the last mile of both the public transport system (electric buses made by Optare in the UK are a drop in replacement and cost less in terms of total cost of ownership than diesel buses). For all our griping we already have a functioning long distance rail based transport system and every large city in the UK already has a partly electrified rail network. I'm not worried about the long distance part of public transport. It's workable and in a pinch we could upgrade the entire rail network to electric quickly.

The logistics system likewise can be shored up by a move from road based long distance freight to rail and water based freight in the short to medium term. Faced with fuel shortages, the last mile is all that needs to be covered and it can be. There were milk floats up to the early 70s. The same companies that made milk floats (Smith Electric and Modec) now make perfectly serviceable electric trucks with top speeds of 50mpg and a range of 150 miles. That is well more than adequate for the "last mile" in a small country such as ours.

It will be FAR easier to set up tens of thousands of battery swap stations than hundreds of thousands and far easier to set up a couple million charging points for electric buses than it will be to set up tens of millions of charging stations.

I'm not ruling out electric cars. If I can get the cash together I am going to buy a Tesla S. I love the idea of the thing and 150 mile range is way more than enough for me.

But not everybody could afford a Tesla S and there's no way we can ramp up electric car production in time, nor upgrade the grid, nor build enough new power stations.

All of these objections are overcome by the much smaller upgrade I'm proposing.

If I'm wrong things look bleak because the back to the land idea of doing things by walking, horses etc is not going to work. There will be total collapse on a scale worse than that of the soviet union if we try that approach and it's based on an emotional preference for the land and not on solving the problems that the majority who live in the city are facing.