Energy Maps

Energy maps are ideal for coordinating and presenting information prepared in Stages one to ten in this guide. They are already being prepared by planning authorities across England in response to national planning policy, which demands evidence to support planning policies; they also provide information for local infrastructure plans.

Increasingly, project developers are using them too, as a starting point for energy strategies for new developments, regeneration and as a way to highlight possible or priority projects. They can help to identify suitable technologies and approaches; show where it’s possible to link to other projects or share energy centres; and help in decisions about phasing. 

What can energy maps show?

Energy maps are normally GIS (Geographical Information System)-based and often prepared at the neighbourhood, local authority or sub-regional scale4.
An energy map might be used in a variety of ways.

• • District heating network: a map might reveal an opportunity to create a district heating network as part of a regeneration scheme.
  • Energy strategy: a map could form the starting point for the energy strategy for a development by identifying energy options (these will need to be fully appraised in Stages 1 to 4).
  • Identifying energy solutions: a map may be used by a registered social landlord (RSL) to identify likely energy solutions for clusters of poorly-insulated and hard-to-treat properties.
  • Priority projects: the map might point to possible investment opportunities for a project developer.
  • Carbon compliance/allowable solutions: the map can highlight nearby energy opportunities that could help a developer meet their carbon compliance or allowable solution obligations under the building regulations.
  • Inform growth options: energy maps provide information that can aid decisions on the allocation of development sites.

Energy Character Areas

Energy maps can also be used to define energy character areas, where the particular characteristics of an area are used to define the appropriate energy solution or planning policy. For example, mature residential suburbs are often lower density areas which have older buildings with poor thermal performance. There’s also little mix of use, and ownership is in many hands. An area like this may be most suitable for microgeneration technologies (small, often building-integrated technologies, such as solar power).

In contrast, city or town centre locations have more buildings, old and new, with mixed uses, including offices,
shops, hotels and public buildings. While there still may be many different building owners, they usually have rational decisionmaking processes for procuring their energy services. Areas like this can develop large-scale heating and cooling networks served by combined heat and power (CHP) plants.

In this way, energy maps, supported by defined energy character areas, can help project developers make good investment decisions and plans, whether at the single-building, neighbourhood or city scale.

How to prepare an energy map

There’s no one defined process for preparing an energy map. The project developer will determine the level of detail necessary. For a given area, a map might include:

• an assessment of existing building energy demands and energy installations as a baseline;
• likely locations of new development at different stages in the planning pipeline, and an assessment of how this will affect energy demands over time;
• the distribution of potential low- and zero-carbon energy resources;
• a heat map, including the location of large public buildings and other anchor loads.

When you get down to the neighbourhood or building scale, more detail can be added (‘Data gathering’) or a new map created if there’s no district level map. You can then use it to define and appraise an energy project. 

Using energy maps to influence developments

Energy maps prompt us to think about planning and masterplans in a different way. For example, at the subregional or district scale a good green infrastructure (GI) strategy should inform the local authority’s approach to energy by showing appropriate areas for green-infrastructure-related energy generation (such as biomass), identifying urban areas where planting can improve energy efficiency, and excluding inappropriate areas (e.g. where nature conservation or landscape character are concerns). Conversely, the energy maps should inform the GI strategy by establishing local need for a particular energy mix.

So you can see how important it is that energy is an early and integral part of the planning and masterplanning process.

SUMMARY

Suggested data for an energy map

• Existing building energy demands and energy installations
• Likely locations of new development and resulting energy demand over time
• Low- and zero-carbon energy resource assessment
• Heat map