Ministers have confirmed the Future Homes Standard (FHS), to be published in Autumn, will include provision that all new build properties have solar PV installed.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband said the “common sense” change to the standard marks a “monumental step” in the government’s pledge to unleash a “rooftop revolution”.
The proposed FHS will see building regulations explicitly promote solar for the first time, subject to practical limits, with flexibility in place for new homes surrounded by trees or with lots of shade overhead.
The FHS will state that if developers cannot meet requirements to install rooftop solar PV coverage equivalent to 40% of a building’s floor area, a “reasonable amount” of coverage is still required.
As such, it would be a functional requirement of the Building Regulations that new homes, with rare exceptions, are built with renewable electricity generation. The government states that “in the vast majority of cases” this would be solar generation.
Miliband cited the government’s Home Energy Assessment tool estimate that households could see £530 annual savings on energy bills with a rooftop solar installation.
Housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook said: “Our common-sense planning changes will now make it easier and cheaper for people to use heat pumps and switch to EVs so they can play their part in bolstering our nation’s energy security.”
Chris Hewett, chief executive of trade association Solar Energy UK said the industry is “very glad” to hear the news.
At the beginning of the year, the government debated the New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill in the House of Commons, which had been put forward following outcry after it was suggested the FHS would not mandate solar for new build properties.
The Sunshine Bill, which essentially laid out proposals that the FHS will now mandate, was rejected by officials on 20 January, despite Pennycook saying the government was “extremely sympathetic” to the proposal.
The MCS Foundation, a charitable foundation founded to oversee the MCS standards scheme which certifies the quality of renewable energy across UK homes, welcomed today’s news.
The group has been an active advocate for the mandate, coordinating a letter in October calling for the government to implement mandatory solar in the FHS, and vocally criticising the government when it wavered on doing so.
The MCS Foundation’s chief executive reiterated that the plans are a “huge boost” to the sector: “This announcement clearly shows that clean energy in the UK is the future.”
