Scottish Building Regulations: Proposed changes to energy and environmental standards 2024

The Scottish Passivhaus equivalent standard, which is set to have important ramifications for the New Build solar and storage landscape in Scotland, is a great opportunity to bring Scotland’s delivery of an energy efficient new build stock in line with the rest of the UK and EU, if not improve upon them. The imminent Future Homes and Building Standards is expected to mandate solar on all new builds in England and Wales, while the already published EU Solar Standard has solar power required on all new commercial and public buildings by 2026 and all new residential buildings by 2029. Passivhaus is a model for energy efficient homes and buildings.

However, the current proposals for the Scottish Passivhaus equivalent standard in this consultation gives no indication that rooftop solar or battery storage will play any kind of role in the standard. Not including rooftop solar generation threatens to leave Scotland lagging behind the rest of the UK, not least the EU, where it used to lead in terms of solar on new build rooftop.

Scottish Government themselves wish to ramp up solar deployment to achieve their 4-6GW solar deployment ambition by 2030, which is set to be outlined in greater depth in the ‘Solar Vision’ alongside the upcoming ‘Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan’, which will set out Scotland’s renewable energy transition with mind to mitigate fuel poverty. Solar rooftop generation on people’s homes, and battery storage, will be an essential part of this plan – homeowners of a typical new build home save between £974- £1,151 per year, and in a typical heat pump heated Scottish home, which is set to be increasingly prevalent as the housing stock becomes electrified (particularly new build), the installation of a solar system would mean heating bills reduced by £961 per year, saving 34.1 tonnes of carbon across the system’s lifetime. Indeed, according to MCS, equipping homes with heat pumps, solar panels and battery storage together saves households living in a typical three-bedroom house more than £46,600 on energy bills over the course of a 25-year mortgage. These benefits are all without mentioning the important role rooftop solar and battery storage plays in ensuring a secure and flexible grid, as it reduces consumer demand side pressure on the grid and can supplement energy input to the grid through excess generation export. 

This consultation is the first of two which will consider the technical, commercial and wider policy implications of a Passivhaus equivalent standard, with subordinate legislation due by 14th December this year. It seeks views on the form and approach that the standard, implemented through building regulations, should adopt. It does not set out the details of proposed new standards or performance targets, which will be set out in a further consultation in summer 2025.

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This consultation response was published in November 2024.