SE24 has 7 solar installations on community buildings in South London.
As well as funding and installing these ‘people’s power stations’ SE24 is also part of the wider campaign to encourage planning authorities everywhere to view favourably the installation of solar panels and battery storage. Together these measures will help reduce our dependency on fossil fuels.
So it was particularly encouraging to read of a recent YouGov survey that revealed that:
‘79% of all MPs support making solar panels mandatory for all new-build homes from 2025 onwards. Three in five MPs (approximately 61%) believe that residential battery energy storage systems (BESS) should also be mandatory in new homes. The figure rises to 77% when focused solely on Labour MPs.’
Source: Ottilie Von Henning on Solar Power Portal, February 15, 2024
Five of our SE24 solare sites are on land under the freehold ownership of Dulwich Estates where the planning restrictions can be quite restrictive. Panels should be invisible from street level.
However they have similar rules regarding Velux windows however this latter ruling is widely ignored and we wonder how long it might be before the same applies to solar panels allowing more home owners and community buildings to start generating their own green electricity.
In the era of retrofit if solar panels were to become mandatory on new build homes then surely we should also loosen any restrictions on installing on existing housing stock and community buildings.
