Turning homes into mini-power stations project welcomed
HOUSING associations have welcomed a project to turn thousands of properties into mini-power stations, but the private sector warned of a “huge number of complex issues” involved in decarbonising homes.
Last Thursday, council leaders from the Swansea Bay City Region approved a £505 million initiative to build or retrofit more than 10,000 properties with green technology like solar panels, heat pumps and Tesla batteries.
These properties would have thick cladding and insulation, virtually no carbon footprint and very low running costs.
Small-scale homes as power stations projects have taken place or are in the pipeline in south west Wales but costs can be high and Welsh Government grants are necessary.
Coastal Housing Group has built six south-facing timber-frame and essentially airtight houses in Ammanford.
The group’s development director, Gareth Davies, said this approach was another way of achieving a low-carbon outcome.
It is stepping up this model with a high-tech estate on land in Penyrheol, Gorseinon, with fellow housing association
Pobl Group.
The 144 properties will have solar panels, air source heat pumps, battery storage and electric vehicle charging points.
Planning consent has been granted and the scheme — more zero-carbon than low-carbon — has £10 million backing from the Welsh Government.
Mr Davies said: “The homes as power stations project is certainly of interest to us.
“The difference between homes as power stations and the Ammanford project is that batteries are included.”
Batteries enable houses to store and release electricity when the occupier needs cheap.
Mr Davies said the costs of building a highly energy-efficient property varied, but estimated it was 20% to 30% more expensive.
He said: “The economies of scale don’t yet exist in the supply chain.”
Looking at the housing market more generally, Mr Davies said he didn’t feel buyers were quite ready to fully go green.
“Otherwise house builders would be doing it,” he said. But he reckoned this could change.
“Either they (house builders) are going to be legislated to do it, or the market will shift,” he said.
“Younger buyers will be it, but they aren’t more acutely aware of environmental concerns.
“And ultimately it’s low running costs.”
The homes as power stations project has a fiveyear delivery timetable.
Although approved at a regional level, it still needs a final sign-off from the Welsh and UK Governments.
A report by the Welsh Government last summer said a third of properties in Wales were built before 1919, when there were no standards on thermal efficiency. Fuel poverty, it said, remained a stubborn issue.
It recommended that ministers commit to a 30-year residential decarbonisation programme, and ensure all new homes should be low-carbon no later than 2025 — or 2021 for homes built with public sector funding.
Housing association body Community Housing Cymru said its members were committed to building and retrofitting existing homes to be energy-efficient and lowcarbon.
Asked what the barriers were, a spokeswoman for the group said: “We are working to understand the costing of building energyefficient homes.
“The cost will be dependent on a number of factors including size, type and geographic location.”
Getting access to homes to retrofit them, she said, could also be a challenge.
A Welsh Government spokeswoman said councils were responsible for ensuring this happens.
And prospective tenants have to be provided with the relevant energy performance certificate before entering into a tenancy agreement.