About us

The Planning Renewables website is managed by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), and was originally developed by CSE in 2004 after feedback from councillors and planning officers.

The website arose out of comments made by more than 1,000 attendees to a series of workshops on renewable energy for councillors and planning officers which CSE was then running. These workshops were launched in 2004 as part of the then Department for Trade and Industry's 'It's Only Natural' campaign, and the new website came about in 2005.

The original aim was to provide the most-up-to-date and useful information in relation to the development of renewable energy projects, and was set up as a straightforward, easy-to-access resource bank.

In 2009, with the cooperation of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG), CSE developed a new, more accessible website, which included an expert support network, an events page, and room for case studies, technical notes and briefing notes.

The site is now managed solely by CSE - to find out more about us and our work, visit our website.