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Both Barking and Dagenham and Merton councils are trialling a system that monitors the amount of renewable electricity produced by micro-renewables, including wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, or heat pumps on a development. The system then contacts council officers if the electricity generated falls below a certain level.

If a developer fails to meet its targets, it will either have to retrofit photovoltaic (PV) cells or forfeit a cash bond of the same value.

The monitoring system, called Energence, has been developed by Adrian Hewitt, the inventor of the so-called Merton Rule, which stipulated that 10% of energy for a development had to come from renewable sources on site.

Barking council has already asked Redrow Homes to retrofit PVs onto one building’s roof after a turbine fell short of its agreed target to provide 14% of the development’s energy. It provided just 4%. The council has now made fitting the monitoring system a condition of planning for a series of forthcoming applications.

Meanwhile, Merton council has made fitting the system a condition on developments of more than 10 homes or 1,000m2 and is looking at introducing enforcement after a testing period of two or three years.

Developers must pay for the system, which costs at least £450. ºÚ¶´ÉçÇø understands that as many as five other councils are in discussions with Energence to trial the system.