Every New Home in Wales to be Powered by Green Energy by 2025

Every new home built in Wales from 2025 will be powered entirely by renewable energy, the Welsh Government has announced.

Under the plans, all homes built after 2025 will be more energy efficient than current properties and will produce up to 80% less carbon emissions. It has been claimed the plans will also help Welsh families save up to £180 a year on their energy bills.

The proposals are part of the Welsh Government’s plans to tackle the climate emergency that was declared last year. It said that in order for climate change targets to be met, all new buildings must produce almost zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“New and existing housing contribute about a fifth of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions,” said the Housing Minister Julie James. “If we are to meet our ambitious target of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 95% by 2050, we need to take action now to make a significant step-change to the way we heat and power hour homes.

“The proposed consultation, for implementation over the next five years, makes a strong and meaningful contribution to reducing the carbon and energy impact of new homes while recognising our ambition needs to be balanced against the desire for standards to be cost-effective, affordable and practical.

“The new homes being built today will exist in 2050. Therefore, we must ensure the standards we set for these homes put us on the right path. This involves improving energy efficiency and moving to cleaner ways to heat our homes.

“These measures will not only help tackle climate change, but they keep down household energy costs now and in the future – helping people, no matter what their background or circumstances, with the cost of living.”

Rhys Parry, director of eastern development for housing association Pobl Group, said: “The point has come when we need to take action and we can make a big difference. Decarbonisation is at the heart of what we are doing. We’re moving away from fossil fuels and using technology already available.

“But we don’t want it to be so difficult that people don’t understand. The houses will look, feel and smell the same as any. These are the houses of the future and hopefully this scheme will prove they work.

“These targets are incredibly ambitious but they are targets that need to be implemented following Welsh Government declaring a climate emergency. It means as an industry we’ve got to change the way we do things. We’ve got to decarbonise; we’ve got to be more energy efficient.”