A piece of good news that is of great interest personally and I’m sure of interest to many people planning conversions and other projects, is that the installation of solar thermal & PV panels, combined-heat & power systems, biomass systems and water & ground source heat pumps will no longer require planning permission, so long as there is no negative impact on neighbours or the area. In future these developments will be included as permitted developments under the General Permitted Development Order.

Negative impact is assessed in part by the profile of any panels installed, roof mounted panels must not extend more than 200 millimetres from the roof and ground mounted panels must not be more than four metres above ground level or more than five metres from the boundary of the property. Additionally, equipment should be sited to ‘minimise its effect on the amenity of the area’ and ‘removed as soon as reasonably practicable‘ if no longer used. (Italicised quotes are from the Statutory Instrument, see below for more details).

Wind turbines and air source heat pumps are not included within the current legislation, but will follow.

This came into effect from April 6th 2008.

Good news for me as I’m currently waiting for a response from the local planners asking if I need permission for ‘in-roof’ panels. Having read through the Statutory Instrument I don’t.

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Solar power homes get the go-ahead for April

The actual legislation: Statutory Instrument

Llandeilo has been grabbing headlines recently with talk of launching its own currency under the banner of being the first transition town in Wales. The transition town movement concerns itself with tackling two major challenges, Peak Oil and Climate Change. The approach to tackling these challenges is by broadly applying permaculture principles, considering energy efficiency and methods for local self sufficiency in food, waste disposal and manufacturing. The goals are to reduce the carbon footprint of transition communities and to prepare them to be better disposed to weather any negative effects of a future impacted by reduced availability of oil and oil based products.

The Llandeilo project began in Spring 2007 and has since spawned a number of sub-groups:

* Allotments
* Food and Farming
* Renewable Energy
* Permaculture
* Afallon Teilo – a project to encourage the local production of apples
* ‘Heart and Soul’ – the psychology of Energy Descent
* Diwylliant a Iaith – (Welsh) culture and language

In terms of analogy and comparison, Jonathan Dawson in an article for the New Statesman draws an elegant branch on the family tree of sustainable communities between small transitional communities (ecovillages to use Jonathan’s terminology) and medieval monasteries.

Interesting times and interesting opportunities.

I have an urge to further extend and heighten these dry stone walls. I’ve always fancied living behind a wall. I think there’s something primal going on here.