The bill, which is also referred to as the Sunshine Bill, would generally require that an area the equivalent of at least 40% of a new home’s ground floor area be covered by a solar system. Image: Geograph via Wikimedia Commons.

Updated 20 January: The bill has been rejected by officials, despite minister for housing and planning Matthew Pennycook saying the government was “extremely sympathetic”.

Tomorrow (17 January), the government will debate a new bill that would require all new homes to have solar PV generation installed.

The second reading of the New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill in the House of Commons follows the outcry that came when it appeared the Future Homes Standard might not mandate newly built properties to have rooftop solar PV.

This bill, which is also referred to as the Sunshine Bill, would generally require that an area the equivalent of at least 40% of a new home’s ground floor area would be covered by a solar system, one of the options debated in the previous government’s 2023 Future Homes and Buildings consultation.

Regulations would provide exemptions, including for buildings over 15 stories (which is again the same as the 2023 consultation), buildings with other forms of renewable energy generation and buildings where solar PV generation equipment is not cost effective to install.

The bill is supported by the MCS Foundation, a charity that oversees the standards for home renewable energy systems in the UK, and other charities including the Campaign to Protect Rural England (which is against large scale ground mount solar installations in the British countryside) have urged constituents to ask their MPs to support the bill at its second reading.

Housing developers have mostly remained quiet on the bill, which is sponsored by Liberal Democrat member of parliament (MP) Max Wilkinson. Responding to the identical option in the 2023 consultation, though, the Home Builders Federation said mandating solar panels would restrict housebuilding innovation, that estimates of running costs were unrealistic, and that no account had been taken of maintenance costs borne by homeowners.

House builder Vistry Group, however, was supportive in 2023. Since then, it has partnered with UK utility Octopus Energy for ‘Zero Bills’ homes. The ‘Zero Bills’ smart tariff, launched in 2022, means Octopus customers with low carbon devices, optimised by Octopus technologies, do not have to pay for energy.

The houses will be fitted with heat pumps, batteries and solar panels. Through the smart tariff, Octopus does not charge customers for 10 years because the homes generate more energy than they consume.

The government’s commitment to building new homes was laid out in its manifesto ahead of the election, with the new government promising to simplify the planning process (a move that has also benefitted the solar industry) to accelerate build-out.

Similarly, energy secretary Ed Miliband has promised to deliver a solar rooftop revolution and it was suggested that ministers were looking to bring in solar-related standards for new-build properties from as soon as this year.

The potential of solar carparks

The government’s Clean Power 2030 action plan committed it to a call for evidence on the potential to drive the construction of solar canopies on outdoor carparks over a certain size.

The installation of solar panels on car parks is already mandatory in a number of European countries, including new car parks in Slovenia and France for all those with more than 80 spaces.

Managing director of renewable energy solutions provider RenEnergy, Damian Baker, said: “The Sunshine Bill is a welcome step in the right direction for solar energy production in this country.

“There is, however, an open goal in solar energy production in the UK that countries such as France and Slovenia are already capitalising on. If the government also mandates the installation of solar carports in new car parks and car parks over 40 spaces, we could see significant renewable production on land that is already used for car parking.”