Details of the local plan review can be found at https://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/planning/local-plans-and-policy/local-plan-review-2020-2040/

First ACT’s Fuad Al-Tawil spoke against the application:

“The council’s unanimous and brave decision to declare a Climate Emergency inspired a huge number of us to act together to help the council fulfil their pledge of Net Zero Emissions for Teignbridge by 2025.

Please give us, and the country, a lead to show that you are serious about doing this.”

“Despite all our efforts we find that the updated report has actually embellished the misinformed evidence from the first report.  Some of this ‘evidence’ gives half the story, some skews the facts and quite a few are simply inaccurate.  This pseudo-evidence is then used to justify the development as being needed and complying with the CCC statements, the NPPF and LP policies.”

“If this is plant is intended to meet ‘peaking’ electricity demands as implied by the developer, it should only operate at the times indicated by WPD’s most recent tender for peaking plant in this area.  This equates to ~5% of the time, yet the applicant intends to operate it for ~50% of the time with no limits to stop that going to 80-90%.”

“Even worse, the declared operating period directly blocks additional renewable generation whether local or elsewhere.”

Here is the full text of Fuad’s speech, which regrettably was cut short by the bell.

Fuad was followed by Ben Wallace for the applicant. Mr. Wallace recited paragraph 3.3.1 of NPP EN-1 as justification for the application: “As a result, the more renewable generating capacity we have the more generation capacity we will require overall, to provide back-up at times when the availability of intermittent renewable sources is low. If fossil fuel plant remains the most cost-effective means of providing such back-up, particularly at short notice, it is possible that even when the UK’s electricity supply is almost entirely decarbonised we may still need fossil fuel power stations for short periods when renewable output is too low to meet demand, for example when there is little wind.”

Cllr Sally Morgan, ward councillor for Bovey ward, then spoke passionately about the impact on the Bovey environment, followed by Cllr Avril Kerwell, also a councillor for Bovey ward, who echoed Cllr Morgan’s sentiments. These were followed by a succession of councillors speaking against, including Cllr Nutley, Cllr Keeling and Cllr Wrigley, who cited Dinorwig as a long established example of storage and urged us to write to government to get things changed. Several members spoke of the need to use existing green alternatives.

Cllr Jackie Hook then spoke, emphasising that this was not a council proposal but from a private company. She pointed out the factual inaccuracies in the applicant’s statement and stated that the application was clearly counter to policies S7 and EN3. She noted that para 3.3.1, which the applicant relied on, was written in 2011 and states that electricity can’t be stored, this policy only states that there might be a need for fossil fuelled plant. This need has not been proven. Cllr Hook also spoke of the need for planning officers to consider both sides of the argument. Cllr Clarence spoke about water power as a long established resource that we are not using.

The motion was then put to a recorded vote, where all the committee voted unanimously to reject the application.

Some points that emerged from the discussion were:

• That the applicant’s web site guarantees 20 years income to site owners for this type of site.
• Such a plant running for about 50% of the time would deny cleaner alternatives access to the grid.
• That the need for this and similar application needs to be proven, and this has not been done.

The factual arguments put by ACT and other like minded  organisations have today won the argument.

A fuller account is now available on Devon Live.

As a result of these Bovey ward Councillor Sally Morgan has called in the decision, so that it would be decided by the full planning committee. The planning officer has now recommended approval to the planning committee, which will meet at 10am 18th February 2020 at Forde House in Newton Abbot.

We will be there at 9.30 and will have a speaker against the application.

A Climate Emergency means that we must not add more fossil fuel burning plant to our electricity network. Teignbridge’s existing local plan has a policy S7, which states that CO2 emissions must be reduced by 48% on 2009 levels by 2033. The applicant claims that this plant supports renewable generation (which it does not), and contains several serious factual inaccuracies including that in 2018 52% of electricity generation was from renewables, where 33.3% came from renewables and 19.5% from nuclear.

The planning officer’s report states that the determination that the application was compliant with policy S7 was “finely balanced”, so had the correct statistics been used it is reasonable to assume that the balance might have swung the other way.

Teign Energy Communities (TECs) has done a detailed analysis of statements in the applicant’s planning statement and the planning officer’s report: http://teignenergycommunities.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/TECs-Heathfield-Power-Station-S7-Analysis-v1.0.pdf

Audrey Compton has written to the members of the planning committee:

“ Dear Cllr
I am extremely concerned about the application for a Gas Power Station at Heathfield and hope very much that you will be voting against it.
Thousands of us were so encouraged when TDC decided to aim for the District to be carbon neutral by 2025. The all-party agreement on this was also very heartening – having a planning officer recommend passing an application for a fossil-fuel powered generating station is not heartening. To achieve the Councils unanimous ambition means that we all need to reduce our electricity use, not continue as before.

The application asks that the station should be allowed to be used 46% of the time in order to fill gaps in renewable power, this will NOT help us become carbon neutral by 2025.
All it will do is encourage everyone to carry on as usual; which means letting down all of our young people and condemming them to an immeasurably worse life than our own!
Added to the very significant CO2 emissions from this generator are the Nitrous oxide emissions – which are very dangerous to health and will be close to a popular walking and cycle path.
How can TDC measure the impact/contribution this plant will make to the overall Teignbridge Carbon emissions (S7) without this number. An estimate based on 46% operation is quite significant at around 0.25% of total Teignbridge emissions! And what are the expected CO2e emissions per kWh electricity generated? TDC needs to look at the development of storage for renewable energy to smooth out energy supplies, if it truly wishes to decarbonise.

I am one of the four who started ACTion on Climate in Teignbridge last year – we now have around 250 members as well as 250 people who belong to our Facebook page.
Over 50 of us are very active in all of the different areas that we cover: the Built Environment, Energy, Ecology, Food, Farming and Forestry, Transport, Public Engagement and Procurement.
We will be at Forde House to observe the Planning Committee on the 18th – and hope that we can once again celebrate the outstanding leadership of our Councillors.

with best wishes for the future,
Audrey Compton “

Applications for similar gas-fired plant at Ivybridge (South Hams 3354/19/FUL ) and Woodbury (East Devon 19/0591/MFUL) have already been refused permission partly on the grounds of climate emergency.

An EPC lets the person who will use the building know how costly it will be to heat and light, and what its carbon dioxide emissions are likely to be.

In the Teignbridge area EPCs have been issued for more than 37,000 of around 54,000 dwellings. Nearly two-thirds of these (62% or 23,137) are rated D or worse, with just 58 rated A. Only 27 dwellings have zero or negative carbon emissions, but of those, 10 are new estate houses built by Redrow in Kingsteignton. This shows it can be done so why aren’t all new build estate houses zero carbon? Most have a B or C rating.

Total emissions from dwellings rated D or below currently amount to 127kt of CO₂, against 31kt for the higher rated ones.

The top recommendations in Teignbridge EPCs for improving energy efficiency are to install: solar panels (29,642 certificates), solar hot water heating (26,591), low energy light bulbs (24,075), a new condensing boiler (11,994). There are also various insulation recommendations.

If all the suggested improvements were carried out, only 5,949 dwellings  (16%) would be rated D or worse and emissions per dwelling would drop by nearly half, from 4.23 tonnes to 2.37 tonnes. But those low rated dwellings would still account for around a third of CO₂ emissions.

EPC data is a useful starting point for Parish and Town councils that have declared a climate emergency. It will help to set carbon targets and implement initiatives designed to reduce emissions.  For more details, and maps showing current and potential CO₂ emissions by parish, please visit https://test.actionclimateteignbridge.org/oldsite/index.php/energy-performance-certificates-epcs/

An Energy Performance Certificate is required for properties when constructed, sold or let. The Energy Performance Certificate provides details on the energy performance of the property and what you can do to improve it. This estimates primary energy consumption and associated emissions for only certain elements of a property, so does not represent all emissions. Notably it does not include emissions from domestic sources such as cooking, white goods and entertainment. Primary energy sources can be: electricity from the grid, mains gas or LPG; heating oil; coal; and biomass.  On-site renewable generation estimates are used to offset these.

When an EPC is issued it lasts for 10 years. EPCs are issued by Domestic Energy Assessors.

An EPC includes:

• A rating A to G for current and potential energy efficiency
• Estimates of:
  • Current and potential CO₂ emissions
  • Energy consumption
  • Environment impact
• Cost estimates for:
  • Space heating
  • Hot water heating
  • Lighting

What do EPCs say about housing in Teignbridge?

EPCs have included values for CO₂ emissions since October 2008. EPCs for an area can be downloaded from https://epc.opendatacommunities.org/domestic/search. ¹ This shows that in Teignbridge EPCs have been issued for over 37,000 of approximately 54000 dwellings. Currently average annual emissions per dwelling are 4.23 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.

The distribution of energy ratings current and potential is shown in the following chart:

Currently 23,137 dwellings (62.1%) are rated D or worse. These dwellings emit 127 kt of CO₂, whereas the better rated dwellings emit just 31 kt of CO₂.

Just 58 dwellings in Teignbridge currently have an energy rating of A, and only 27 of these dwellings have zero or negative carbon emissions. Most of the 27 are one off custom builds, but 10 are new estate houses built by Redrow in Kingsteignton. Most new build houses have a B or C rating, but this shows that zero carbon is possible for new build estate houses, so why aren’t they all zero carbon?

How might we improve

For many dwellings EPCs contain recommendations for improvements and estimates of potential CO2 emissions and energy consumption. If all the suggested improvements were carried out then:

• Emissions per dwelling would drop from 4.23 tonnes to 2.37 tonnes, a reduction of nearly 44%.
• Only 5,949 dwellings (15.97%) would be rated D or worse, against 23,137 (62.1%) currently. Despite the great reduction in numbers, those households rated D or worse would still account for 36.5% of CO₂ emissions.
• Dwellings that are rated A,B or C would emit 1.79 tonnes each or 56 kt in total, whereas those rated D and below would emit 5.42 tonnes each or 32 kt in total.

Many of the measures recommended in EPCs are quite expensive, so it is reasonable to assume that many have not been implemented.

If more radical measures were applied to the difficult cases to ensure these were at least as good as those rated C and above, then total domestic emissions could reduce to 67 kt, an overall improvement of about 68%.

In addition to improving the existing stock, we need new buildings to be zero carbon or negative as soon as possible. Ideally negative, to mitigate emissions from existing dwellings that are difficult to treat.

What are the EPC recommendations

The top EPC assessor recommendations are:

• Install Solar PV 2.5 kWp (29,642)
• Install Solar hot water heating (26,591)
• Install Low energy light bulbs (24,075)
• Replace boiler with new condensing boiler (11,994)

The number of certificates with each recommendation is shown in brackets.

These are followed by various insulation recommendations.

As we need hot water all year round, solar water heating will reduce energy imports in the summer.

Low energy lighting is probably the simplest measure to apply, LED lights are now available in a wide variety of fittings and in many cases all that is needed is to directly replace an existing bulb with an LED one.

It is optimistic to assume that fitting half of all dwellings with Solar PV would reduce emissions significantly as solar panels are only really effective in the summer during daytime, when energy is not required for heating or lighting. Solar panels are only likely to reduce emissions in the summer if the electricity generated is not exported. A storage battery can ensure that you have electricity at night, but there is no prospect of storing energy in the summer for use in winter. Now that time of use based tariffs are appearing following smart meter roll out, a battery could also be used to take advantage of low off peak rates, when hopefully more of the energy mix comes from renewables.

Electric heating has the potential of being zero carbon, whilst gas does not, so it is disappointing that heat pumps do not feature as a possible solution in the recommendations, but that gas boilers do. This probably reflects that:

• Heat pumps are more expensive than gas boilers
• Heat pumps work best with lower flow temperatures, so need larger emitting surfaces, ideally underfloor heating.

How well do EPC emissions estimates match reality

According to EPCs the total emissions for Teignbridge are 157.7 kilo-tonnes (kt).

An estimate is made for each year by BEIS for local authority emissions by fuel and sector, this can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-local-authority-and-regional-carbon-dioxide-emissions-national-statistics-2005-to-2017. Domestic emissions for Teignbridge for 2017 from this source are 183.1 kt. This estimate is based on actual consumption figures, so is more accurate.

EPCs only represent 37,247 dwellings, whereas there are about 54,000 dwellings in Teignbridge. EPC derived emissions are increased by a factor of 1.45 (54000/37247) to 228.7 to take this into account, so adding up EPC derived emissions overestimates by about 25%. This is probably down to a number of factors:

• Space heating calculations used in EPCs assume a standardised temperature of 21C during heating periods in the living area. It is likely that most houses are heated to lower temperatures.
• When assessing existing buildings assessors have to make assumptions about construction, as the assessment must be non-destructive.
• Calculations derive CO₂ emissions from calculated energy consumption using standard conversion factors for each fuel type. Over time these factors have changed, most noticeably the electricity factor to reflect increased use of renewables. This means that EPCs will overestimate emissions from some fuel types.

A more accurate estimate of domestic emissions for small areas could be calculated from actual consumption. Domestic gas consumption is available by postcode, and electricity is available at census LSOA (Lower Super Output Area) level. This article and associated data will be updated once this analysis has been done.

EPC data is a useful starting point for Parish and Town councils who have declared a Climate Emergency.  It will help to set carbon targets and implement initiatives that help reduce emissions.  An alternative approach would be to calculate emissions from BEIS data on a pro-rata basis, or use the results of our consumption based analysis once it is available.  Ultimately the most accurate and up-to-date method is for individual property owners/occupiers to do this assessment themselves, either by commissioning a new EPC, or by simply reading their energy bills or meters.  Please contact ACT’s Built Environment group for information on how to do this.

Where are domestic emissions in the district

The EPC data includes a postcode for each property, so EPCs can be analysed against a number of geographies including:

• Parish boundaries
• Census 2011 output areas
• Teignbridge wards
• Teignbridge district

Mapping Emissions

To finish this article here are maps. If you click the mouse over an area on the map, you will be shown some statistics about the area. Both the maps below are synchronised so that they always show the same place at the same scale.

Here are some links to map only pages:

• A map showing current and potential domestic emissions per dwelling if all EPC recommendations are carried out. Map has census output areas coloured by emissions level, together with parish boundaries. Two maps are shown side by side, both maps pan and zoom simultaneously. Click on an area to see links to further data about the area.
• Map showing mapping data available on this site. A single map is shown with a legend to the right of it. There are checkboxes on the legend that allow layers to be turned on and off, as well as the ability to control which layers respond to clicks on the map.

Footnotes

1. If you follow the link to the opendatacommunities site you may get a security warning, this can safely be ignored.