New planning rules from 6th April?

[babba]

I found a link which is plain english I think..

Planning permission no longer required for non-domestic solar installations |*Solar Power Portal

Not sure if it has been posted already ?

 

[TedM]

Just quote them "The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (England) Order 2012 SI 2012/748 coming in to force from 6th April 2012".

Scotland already has something broadly equivalent while Wales is still lagging behind.

 

[whinmoor]

We are looking at doing our first ground-mounted system under the new rules. We intend to go for a 4kWp similar to Solarcity's fine arrangement:

http://www.electriciansforums.net/p...gy-forum/54910-nice-pv-jobs-3.html#post503343

The new rules say: "The size of the array should be no more that 9 square metres or 3m wide by 3m deep."

Does this mean the surface area of panels or the surface area of land over which the array is based?

In the case of Solarcity's photo, assuming the panels are 1m x 1.5m, wouldn't his array cover 24 square metres?

Does this mean only a tiny ground-mounted array (approx 6 panels) can avoid planning permission, or am I missing something?

 

[Earthstore]

Had not seen that rule, either way though it is tiny.
Hopefully Ted will tell us?

 

[TedM]

The panel surface can be 9m[SUP]2[/SUP] max with each side being 3m max - so yes not much more than 1kW under permitted development for a ground mounted array. This is the same for both domestic and non-domestic.

 

[JulianC]

Has anyone thought through what the phrase, "..... on a roof and within 1 metre of the external edge of that roof;" means?

Is it effectively just the verge or hip (sides) rather than ridge (top) or eaves (bottom)?

Regards
Bruce

Did anyone every come up with a definitive answer to this? Like Earthstore, I take it to mean 1m all round (ie. including eaves and ridge) but that obviously has a significant impact on the size of array that can be installed. (I am loathe to contact my local council at this stage as history has proven them clueless).

 

[Gavin A]

the solar PV or solar thermal equipment would be installed on a roof and within 1 metre of the external edge of that roof;

(d)​

the solar PV or solar thermal equipment would be installed on a wall and within 1 metre of a junction of that wall with another wall or with the roof of the building;

I'm working on the basis that as it specifically says 'external edge of that roof' and specifies for walls that it is the junction of that wall with another wall or roof, that this indicates that it's not talking about any HIP ridges, or even necessarily the main ridge, or any other junctions of one bit of the roof with another, but would apply to the gutter of the roof, and any external edges at the ends of a gable style roof face.

We have had a customer check with planning, and they agreed with this, and even said they weren't really bothered about the 1m rule if it wasn't really visible from the road anyway.

1m from the actual edges is a good idea anyway for maintenance etc, which is probably what the rule is about.

 

[babba]

Gav A, I had to look at the link on the first page I posted and I do agree regarding edges of building 1 meter clearance, not the ridge and gutter.

Im losing it.