Guidance for assessing clean energy projects: supporting planners in delivering the transition

Net Zero Go says

This Regen guidance helps planners assess clean energy projects more consistently and confidently. It sets out clear principles for weighing national Net Zero need against local impacts, with practical questions covering project scale, location, benefits and community considerations. The guidance is designed to align planning decisions with climate policy while remaining rooted in place based judgement.

For local authorities, the guidance offers a robust and defensible approach to decision making. It supports officers and members in handling complex renewable applications, improving consistency, reducing risk at appeal and helping councils play a proactive role in delivering Net Zero infrastructure.

Guidance for assessing clean energy projects: supporting planners in delivering the transition

As the UK accelerates towards a clean power and net zero future, local authorities are at the frontline of the energy transition. Local planners are seeing a growing volume of complex and technical applications for ground-mounted solar, battery storage, onshore wind and electricity network infrastructure. These projects are essential for decarbonising the grid, strengthening energy security and delivering affordable power.

But local planning teams are often stretched, with limited time and capacity to keep up with evolving policy, technical standards and best practice.

That is why Regen has partnered with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Great British Energy and the Local Net Zero Hubs to provide planners with new guidance and training to support them in assessing onshore wind, ground-mounted solar, battery storage and electricity network infrastructure applications.

These guidance documents have been developed with input from industry, planners and government departments. They provide clear overviews of each technology, including key components and common stages of development, outline relevant planning policy and guidance, highlight common considerations likely to emerge when assessing applications, and signpost other helpful resources.

The 4 guides cover

Assessing onshore wind applications
Assessing group-mounted applications
Assessing battery storage (BESS) applications
Assessing electricity network infrastructure applications

This guidance will be updated to reflect any policy changes when the revised NPPF is published later in 2026.

Training for planning officers

During February and March 2026, Regen delivered online training sessions for local planning authority officers through the regional Net Zero Hubs.

We shared key information from the guidance and invited developers to share practical insights from real case studies, facilitating discussions with planners on the best ways to navigate planning challenges.

The full playlist is here

Introduction

In this introduction, we discuss what to expect from the guidance and explain the government’s strategic approach to energy planning and how this is driving an increase in renewable and low-carbon energy developments.

Onshore wind

This video features four presentations from onshore wind developers, who discuss the process of identifying project sites, examples of projects where planning-related challenges were experienced and overcome, and opportunities for developers and planners to improve the planning process.

Key topics include:

Repowering
Changes since the de-facto ban in 2015
Landscape and visual impacts
Shadow flicker

Battery energy storage system (BESS)

This section features two presentations from BESS developers, who discuss the process of identifying project sites, examples of projects where planning-related challenges were experienced and overcome, and opportunities for developers and planners to improve the planning process.

Key topics include:

Operational noise
Fire risk and safety
Site design and changing technology

Ground-mounted solar

This section features two presentations from solar developers, who discuss the process of identifying project sites, examples of projects where planning-related challenges were experienced and overcome, and opportunities for developers and planners to improve the planning process.

Key topics include:

Overplanting
Agricultural land use
Glint and glare and cumulative impacts

Electricity network infrastructure

Here we feature two presentations from distribution network operators, who discuss their process of identifying project sites and planning network upgrades.

Key topics include:

Electric and magnetic fields
How the electricity network is changing
Consenting routes

Guidance for assessing clean energy projects: supporting planners in delivering the transition

This resource is part of a collection

Topics