Planning changes in the UK

Nick

Categories: electric cars, planning, wind turbines

Nov 19, 2009 12:58 am 1 Comment

Fantastic news from the UK; the planning rules - which, to be honest, seem pretty archaic at times - are being relaxed to make it easier to "go green"!

Tuesday's announcement from Planning minister John Healey saw red tape cut from two specific areas, notorious for getting people snarled up in the planning system, when all they really wanted to do was to upgrade their lifestyles more sustainably.

Electric cars and micro-Wind Turbines

Homeowners, businesses and councils alike will no longer need planning permission to install electric charging points in driveways and car parking areas, and people won't need planning permission to install a micro-wind turbine on their roof (provided they follow anti-noise and safety rules).

In a rare moment of government acknowledgement that there is simply too much red tape around when trying to get the UK's population to be more sustainable, Healey said: "We take the basic services on our streets for granted, such as street lighting and phone boxes. In the future, this will include electric-car charging points".

Finally, sense is winning out over bureaucracy!

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Jack
November 19, 2009 - 7:26am

That's great news about the electric vehicle charging points. Is there a standard physical plug and current rating for those charging points? I assume so. It seems to me that, in order for electric cars to really take off, the charging points need to be capable of delivering huge currents in order to charge those cars lucky enough to be endowed with lithium titanate batteries in 10 minutes. The Lightning GT requires over 216kW to charge fully in 10 minutes! (that's over 900Amps at 230v - to put that in context, most domestic houses in the UK have a 100A master fuse and a kettle draws about 13A).

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