Harrogate Borough Council May 2011 Harrogate District Planning and Climate Change Study Prepared by: Checked by: Abena Poku-Awuah Zac Grant Senior Consultant Associate Director Harrogate District Planning and Climate Change Study Rev No Comments Checked by Approved Date by 1 Draft report HP RS 31/3/10 2 Draft report QA HP RS 15/4/10 3 Revised draft report submitted to Harrogate Borough Council NI NI 29/4/10 4 Final draft report APA ZG 25/10/10 5 Final BS ZG 25/01/10 6 Final with minor amendments BS BS 10/05/11 The Johnson Building, 77 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8JS Telephone: 020 7645 2000 Website: http://www.aecom.com Job No 60142943 Reference Draft Report Date Created May 201 This document is confidential and the copyright of AECOM Limited. Any unauthorised reproduction or usage by any person other than the addressee is strictly prohibited. Table of Contents Non Technical Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 2 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................... 7 2 Baseline carbon emissions ............................................................................................................................................ 14 3 Opportunities for Energy Efficiency .............................................................................................................................. 18 4 Opportunities for District Heating and CHP ..................................................................................................................26 5 Opportunities for low carbon and renewable energy technologies: Large/community scale ..................................34 6 Opportunities for Microgeneration Technologies ....................................................................................................... 48 7 Energy Opportunity Areas .............................................................................................................................................. 60 8 Future development in Harrogate District .....................................................................................................................65 9 Policy Analysis & Recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 83 10 Delivering the energy opportunities in Harrogate District ...........................................................................................89 Appendix A: GIS Maps ................................................................................................................................................................. 98 Appendix B: Stakeholder consultation ..................................................................................................................................... 116 Appendix C: Energy Modelling .................................................................................................................................................. 119 Do not delete the line below as you will remove the Bookmark TOP (Table of Photographs) Non Technical Summary AECOM Harrogate District Planning and Climate Change Study 2 Non Technical Summary This study identifies low carbon and renewable Ripon and over 120 smaller settlements. The District’s western energy generation resources in Harrogate area includes the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural District. It considers opportunities to exploit Beauty, which is comparatively sparsely populated. Much of these resources in the existing building stock, the District’s landscape has a strong character and high quality. in new development and through community- scale projects, and recommends appropriate The recent economic slowdown and election of the new planning policies. coalition government has cast uncertainty over the future of regional housing targets. Harrogate Borough Council has This study report is part of the evidence base already adopted housing targets within their Core Strategy for Harrogate Borough Council’s ‘Sites and which provides greater certainty of delivery within the District Policies’ Development Plan Document. It has and consequently greater opportunity to introduce community scale, low carbon and renewable energy infrastructure. The been prepared in accordance with national Sites and Policies DPD sets out policies and allocations to guidance, primarily Planning Policy Statement: deliver the Core Strategy.’ Planning and Climate Change – Supplement to Opportunities for energy efficiency Planning Policy Statement 1. The existing building stock is responsible for the largest energy The need for a Planning and Climate Change Study demand in Harrogate District. Any strategy for CO2 reduction in There is a clear national policy framework for planning to buildings should consider the potential for increased energy mitigate and adapt to climate change. The Climate Change Act efficiency in the existing stock as well as new developments. requires the UK to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 There are approximately 69,000 homes in the District and the compared to 1990 levels. In Europe, the UK has made a current replacement rate is negligible, with virtually all new binding commitment to generate 15% of its energy from dwellings being built to increase supply rather than replace renewables by 2020. The Low Carbon Transition Plan and the older stock. This means that most of the current existing stock Renewable Energy Strategy set out how these challenging will be retained, certainly over the period of influence of the targets will be met. Core Strategy and probably for decades afterwards. This presents a great potential for making improvements. New buildings must comply with Part L of the Building Regulations, which govern the level of CO2 emissions that are Opportunities for district heating networks and low carbon permissible from any building. Changes to the Building and renewable energy generation Regulations introduced in October 2010 and due in 2013 are The opportunities for district heating networks and low carbon expected to bring in demanding CO2 emissions targets, leading and renewable energy installations have been assessed to zero carbon homes by 2016 and non domestic buildings by across existing and new development and at the community 2019. These changes will gradually shift most of the onus for scale. The available opportunities involve establishing supply delivering on-site energy efficiency, low carbon and renewable chains to manage local biomass, hydro energy schemes, large energy generation away from planning and onto the Building and small scale wind energy, and microgeneration Regulations. technologies. District heating networks could provide community heat (preferably with CHP to provide community This study forms part of the evidence base for the emerging electricity) on larger developments. However, due to its largely Harrogate District Sites and Policies Development Plan rural nature and relatively low density of the building stock in Document, which will include development control policies, site Harrogate District, district heating is unlikely to play a role allocations and a Proposals Map. The Sites and Policies DPD outside of the urban centres of Harrogate Town, will identify specific sites for new homes and jobs across the Knaresborough and Ripon. District. The expected tightening of the Building Regulations means Harrogate District in Context 2 that the installation of onsite microgeneration technologies will The District of Harrogate has an area of 1,305km and is one of increasingly fall beyond the remit of planners. Local authorities the largest shire districts in England. With three major will need to support developers in fulfilling their regulatory settlements comprising Harrogate Town, Knaresborough and obligations and, where necessary and appropriate, set targets AECOM Harrogate District Planning and Climate Change Study 3 for building performance standards ahead of the Building A carbon fund has been recommended as an alternative for Regulations. Post 2016, the Council may need to assist by developers unable to comply with the recommended policies. identifying “allowable solutions;” the proposed mechanism for Recommended policy 1: Delivering the Energy new development to achieve “zero carbon” status, by linking to Opportunities Plan. off-site solutions. Harrogate Borough Council considers climate change to be These opportunities cannot be delivered through planning one if its highest priorities. Planning applications for new alone. However, planning is able to build up a comprehensive development will need to demonstrate how they contribute to spatial understanding of the opportunities and constraints. This delivery of the opportunities identified in the current Energy study has enabled the preparation of an Energy Opportunities Opportunities Plan. Plan that maps the low carbon and renewable opportunities Where necessary, the Council will seek to protect land for available, and also outlines some appropriate delivery decentralised renewable and low carbon energy. Development mechanisms. This will provide the basis for developing site that falls within an Energy Opportunity Area should not specific and development planning policies and targets. It will unnecessarily restrict the exploitation of that opportunity.