In preparation for the Government’s highly ambitious 2050 Net Zero Target, the forthcoming Future Homes Standard, set to be implemented in 2025, will see the housebuilding industry take a giant leap towards helping to meet the UK’s 2050 net zero target. This will see fossil fuels banned in all new homes.
As a first step, the latest building regulations – Interim Part L coming into force in June 2022 – will see a transition to most new homes in England and Wales having solar panels fitted in the build process. This is already the case in Scotland.
Through this initiative, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) aims to shrink carbon dioxide emissions in new build homes by up to 80%, compared to properties constructed under current building standards from 2025.
These future-proofed homes will be built to much higher standards of energy efficiency, with features like low carbon heating, improved insulation and ventilation and low energy lights as standard.
In addition, in order to achieve Target CO2 Emission Rates (TER), new homes will also require a renewable energy source – widely expected to be cost-efficient solar PV.
While 2025 still seems quite a way off, the Government’s changes to Part L of the Building Regulations (the conservation of fuel and power) – coming into force from June 2022 – will act as an interim measure to pave the way towards implementing the Future Homes Standard.
Of the 180,000 new homes built in England each year, currently around 10% have solar PV installed; when the new regulations come into force, it’s widely anticipated that this figure will jump to 80%, which will inevitably impact on the solar supply chain; creating a steep cliff of upwards demand for these technologies.
If all housing developers leave securing a solar PV supplier to late 2023, this is what the steep cliff of demand could look like:
However, if we start planning for Part L now and implement slowly, the journey will be much smoother:
Please get in touch to see how partnering with Eco2Solar can help you to meet the new standards without any delays to your build programmes.
