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Solar panels for homes in Highgate – 22nd Aug deadline

Solar panels for homes in Highgate – 22nd Aug deadline

/ Climate Change, Energy, featured, London /

Would you like to have solar panels on your home?

But don’t know who to trust and how expensive they would be?

The Highgate boroughs of Camden, Haringey and Islington have all been included in the second phase of the Mayor of London’s Solar Together scheme. Residents are encouraged to express their interest in rooftop solar here, await the results of a ‘reverse auction’ on 22nd Aug and discover whether their roof is suitable before deciding whether to go ahead.

The first pilot phase of Solar Together was for four boroughs and, out of 4,000 registrations, more than 1,100 went ahead to accept. The winning company in the first phase of the scheme was SolarCentury (together with Ikea), which offered an average saving of 35 per cent on the cost of solar installations.

Every kWh of solar energy you would produce is calculated to use only 52gm/CO2 per kWh compared with 369gm/CO2 from natural gas and 837gm/CO2 from coal. If you are able to use your own electricity for charging an electric car, that would reduce the UK’s CO2 from the displaced petrol or diesel. (figures from Ricardo at Ecotricity)

The Governments Feed In Tariff scheme is closing for new installations in April 2019. For solar panels installed before it closes the owner will be paid 3.86p for every kWh generated (or 3.79p if after 1st Jan) plus 5.24p for half of the kWh (called ‘export’) – regardless of whether you can use the electricity yourself. See here. These will be for 20 years and increased every year for RPI. And are Tax free. You will also save apx 15p kWh on payments to your usual supplier when you use your own electricity. Before committing to this purchase you will be given the precise figures to work out your cost/savings. Note that you will need an up to date Energy Performance Certificate to prove that your house is reasonably energy efficient. See here to check.

Important dates

  • Registration opens – 23 June 2018. Click here. You will be asked questions about your roof, such as size and orientation, but also consider whether you have the legal rights to attach anything to the roof. If it is someone else you could approach them before applying or tell them about the opportunity later.
  • Auction takes place – 22 August 2018
  • Personalised offers sent out – 10 September 2018
  • Acceptance ends – 19 October 2018
  • Installations take place – October 2018 to end March 2019

The burning issue for Highgate is whether the relevant council will allow solar panels to be installed, depending on whether the property is in a conservation area, listed or not.

The national guidelines from the Planning Portal are:
“In many cases fixing solar panels to the roof of a single family dwelling is likely to be considered ‘permitted development’ with no need to apply for planning permission. There are however, important exceptions and conditions which must be observed. These permitted development rights apply to houses. If you live in a flat and are considering fitting solar panels please visit the Planning Portal for further updates.” And the general exceptions are:

  • it would protrude more than 20cm from the wall or above the roof slope (when measured perpendicularly from the external surface of the wall or roof);
  • the highest part of the solar panel or equipment will be higher than the highest part of the roof (excluding any chimney);
  • the property is in a conservation area and/or covered by an Article 4 Direction and it would be located on a wall or roof slope visible from the road; or
  • it would be installed on an outbuilding within the grounds of a listed building
  • If your house or flat is a listed building (or part of a listed building), you will need to apply for listed building consent to install a solar .

If these apply – and the majority of homes in Highgate are in a conservation area – then you will need to apply for full planning permission (flats) or householder planning permission (houses) to proceed with Solar Together. The programme has a helpdesk opne Monday to Friday, 8am-5.30pm on 0800 060 8509, where this can be discussed.

CAMDEN HOME OWNERS

No specific web site for Solar Together has been found for Camden, but expressions of interest can be made here .

 

HARINGEY HOME OWNERS

Haringey’s Solar Together web site is here. and their leaflet is below:

ISLINGTON HOME OWNERS

Islington’s Solar Together web site is here:

Do I need Planning Permission to install solar panels? The rule of thumb for homes in the Islington conservation areas is that panels should not be visible from the street. See advice here. For listed buildings owners would need to go through the usual process for permission.

Further information:

There is more information available on the GLA web site here for the first phase and here for the second phase.

FAQs here and Twitter is at @solartogether

Solar Together London is being run in partnership with iChoosr – independent experts in group buying. Their dedicated helpdesk is available to answer your questions Monday to Friday, 8am-5.30pm on 0800 060 8509.

Note that Londoners outside of these boroughs may still participate in the scheme, but this will be subject to installers’ availability in your area.

London’s Polluted Air

London’s Polluted Air

/ featured, London, Pollution /

See Air Pollution – Local effects from Global Causes for a round up of regulations, North London’s Air for more on journey types and what Camden and Haringey can do, and Your Car for information on clean cars – particularly Electric models.

Click here for Waking Up to Poisonous Air , showing this Green Party map of local air quality results:

For daily information at London Air Quality Network click here.
For Defra’s daily air forecasts click here.
For daily Air Text Alerts of Air Quality click here or here.

For Real Time Air Quality information for London click here.

For a CleanSpace Mobile App with a personal monitoring tag click here. (Note: the Tag costs £75, but signing up does offer some incentives, and no responsibility is taken by Transition Highgate for this).

For information about Personal Exposure measuring equipment click here.

Also watch out for the Tzoa wearable device that will measure PM10, PM2.5, dust and pollen, UV, temperature, humidity and atmosphere pressure.

To donate to Client Earths legal action against Defra to abide by the Supreme Court’s order to come up with ambitious new measures to meet EU pollution limits click here. “Your donation will help us fight in the courts for your right to breathe clean air.”

Poor Air Quality affects locations all across the world. See the Air Quality Index for any city to find current pollution levels and also the World Health Organisation database for ambient (outdoor) air pollution monitoring from almost 1600 cities in 91 countries.

Common causes, though they vary in different places, include vehicles, aviation, construction and even domestic boilers. Many of these are sans frontier meaning that co-operation, innovation and regulation has to be at Global, Country (or EU) level.

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Autumn Programme 2013 – London’s Waste

/ Events, London, Talks /

A TALK ON LONDON’S WASTE PROBLEM AND HOW TO MANAGE IT – Oct 23rd at Highgate Library Chester Rd.

In partnership with Transition Dartmouth Park and given by Mike Webster, Development Manager at the London Community Resource Network.

FROM ‘HUMP IT AND DUMP IT’ – TO THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY.

Mike discussed ‘Sustainable resource management in London – where we’ve come from, where we are now and where we are going.

This October talk was the final of four about how well prepared London is for the challenge of Climate Change. The first covered ‘Water’, the second ‘Food’, and the third ‘Transport’

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London: Managing Drought and Flood

London: Managing Drought and Flood

/ Climate Change, Events, London, Meeting, News, Talks / , , /

Dr Tim Evans (Chairman, CIWEM Wastewater Management Panel and independent environmental consultant) gave a fascinating talk on the 14th March at the Highgate Society about London’s water as part of a series considering one big question:  how well prepared is London to meet the challenge of climate change? The talk was filmed and is available full-length on YouTube. We also have a 15 minute extracts video. The meeting was sponsored by Transition Highgate, Muswell Hill Sustainability Group and Sustainable Haringey.
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