Across February and March 2026, Regen worked with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Local Net Zero Hubs to deliver a series of training sessions for local planning authority officers across England. These sessions were built around our new guidance for assessing renewable and low-carbon energy planning applications, helping planners navigate a fast-evolving policy and development landscape.
The training sessions brought together more than 370 attendees, who shared their experiences of assessing applications, the common challenges they encounter and the additional support they need to support effective decision-making.
We also welcomed 22 industry experts from 12 organisations to join these training sessions, answering technical questions, offering insight into the site-selection process and sharing both the challenges they encounter in planning and the opportunities for stronger collaboration with planners to help address them.
In this blog, we discuss key lessons for planners and developers, and how increased collaboration and flexibility can improve the planning process for both.
Conversations between developers and planners bring value to both sides, helping build common understanding and a more effective system.
Feedback from planners
Key questions
With renewable and low-carbon technologies developing rapidly and a suite of planning reforms implemented over the last two years, it is challenging for planners to keep up with the changes – especially as many planning authorities are significantly under-resourced. Regular guidance and training are essential to help planners stay up-to-date, build confidence in decision making and ensure planning applications are assessed using the latest information and best practice.
The themes below were drawn from the key questions planners raised during our training sessions. They highlight the areas where further guidance, training and developer engagement would be most valuable:
Technical considerations, including site maintenance requirements, technology design and proximity to grid connection points
Landscape and visual impacts, especially cumulative impacts, land use considerations and potential impacts on heritage assets and archaeology
Broader project sustainability, including supply chain impacts, whole-lifecycle emissions and decommissioning
Local plans, including how local policies can better support renewables and the role of site identification or allocation within this process
How to address concerns raised by communities and councillors.
The value of developer engagement with planners
Many of the key questions raised during the training sessions reflect those that planners hear from community members and local councillors. While some topics, such as supply chains, sit outside of the planning system, they can still influence local support or opposition for projects. Planners flagged that they need clear, accessible evidence to point to during discussions, particularly on topics such as fire safety, site maintenance and decommissioning practices.
Regen will shortly publish a ’Battery Energy Storage Systems Explained’ guide to help meet this need. By providing similar resources or offering site visits to planners, developers can also help address common questions and demonstrate what operational sites are really like.
Throughout the training sessions, planners valued the case studies and developer input. Clear explanations to technical questions helped them improve their understanding of how and why decisions are made.
For example, battery developers explained that, while painting battery units green can help them blend into the surrounding landscape, they are often finished in white because this colour helps regulate operating temperature. An onshore wind developer shared maps of the constraints they must consider when identifying sites, demonstrating the site-selection process that happens before a planning application is submitted.
The need for early and responsive engagement with communities
Planners also flagged the need for developers to engage earlier and more meaningfully with communities. At the heart of Regen's mission is a deep understanding that communities and people must be at the heart of the transition if we are to deliver net zero at the scale and pace required. For this to happen, developers should not only engage with communities early in the process, but also respond to their feedback, answering questions and explaining how their input has been considered.
Our recent research paper found that onshore wind and solar projects that had been approved were more likely to have adapted in response to feedback compared to projects that went to appeal. At our training session on assessing ground-mounted solar, a solar developer discussed how they adjusted the proposed layout of one of their sites in response to community concerns about recreational access and impacts on views. They created a green corridor between an existing right of way and the solar panels, supporting progress towards approval by the local planning authority (you can find this case study in the solar training video and guidance here).
A green corridor at Hatherden solar farm. Image: Starlight Energy, a NextEnergy group member.
Feedback from developers
Flexible planning conditions
In many cases, the final design details of a project will not yet have been confirmed at the application stage. However, planning conditions attached to approvals can be overly specific, making it difficult to deliver projects by limiting the flexibility needed to refine designs post-approval. While post-permission amendments can be submitted to change conditions, more flexible approaches and Rochdale envelopes can help avoid this extra step by setting out key parameters in planning conditions rather than fixed details.
For example, planning conditions could specify a maximum height for solar panels or battery storage units, rather than setting a specific height ahead of supply chain procurement.
Grid connections
Grid connections are often the primary factor in site selection, making it difficult to consider alternative sites. The longer the cable or powerline required to connect a solar farm, wind farm or battery storage site to a substation, the higher the cost. This can materially affect economic feasibility.
Micrositing – the practice of adjusting the specific locations of components within a site – can help mitigate impacts without relocating an entire project. In practice, this could involve relocating solar panels to avoid disturbing higher-quality agricultural land, or adjusting wind turbine locations to avoid areas of deep peat.
Local plans
The role of local plans in allocating sites for renewable energy was also discussed in the training sessions. While developers use in-house models and the latest data to identify and refresh potential sites, local plans are not updated regularly. Regen research last year found that 34% of local plans in England had not been updated in the last decade. This means that sites identified in a local plan may become unfeasible as grid capacity, technology parameters and surrounding developments change.
To avoid outdated site allocations unintentionally constraining otherwise feasible projects being brought forward, developers suggested that where local plans do identify sites for renewables, proposals outside those areas should still be considered on an equal footing. This is also in line with proposed changes to the NPPF.
Conclusion
It’s clear that conversations between developers and planners bring value to both sides, helping build common understanding and a more effective system. Future training and guidance for planners should continue to foster these conversations where possible and incorporate case studies. Developers, in turn, should continue to follow best practice by engaging early and responsively with both planners and communities.
To find out more and discuss Regen’s work in this area, please reach out to our planning lead, Rebecca Windemer. Members can also join our next planning working group, on 1 July.
%20(1).jpg)
.jpg)
