Over the last five years, the planning and development of the UK’s energy infrastructure has re-emerged firmly as a key priority of business and government. Soaring energy costs have now brought the need to address these infrastructure requirements to the attention of every household. They now rank as political priorities up alongside transport and housing. The underlying issues are primarily UK’s need to once more become a net importer of oil and gas as North Sea reserves diminish, as well as the need for diversity of energy supply. There is, of course, the need to change the way we generate and use energy supplies in response to climate change. There are set targets for reducing CO2 emissions, and there is an emerging “energy gap” in centralised electricity generation capacity as coal and nuclear power stations reach the end of their life. These are permanent issues which are set to require significant planning and development resources over the next 10 years.

RPS is at the cutting edge of this dynamic market. Our teams provide an integrated and multi-disciplinary service utilising our expertise in planning, environmental impact assessment, ecology, due diligence, landscape, architecture, civil and structural engineering, urban regeneration, noise, and archaeology to encourage and support investment in, and the development of, new and greater capacity, cleaner forms of centralised energy production, and overcoming the challenges of alternative and renewable forms of energy.

For each project we are able to manage every stage of the planning process and provide all supporting technical services. Our planning teams are fully conversant with the needs of developers, and their technical requirements and accepted industry practices. RPS consistently recognises the importance of reconciling these needs with the variety of planning and environmental regulations that place pressure on projects to succeed economically, sustainably, for the benefit of the communities in which they exist