Amongst its findings is the conclusion that the policy could drive a market for onsite renewable worth £2.3bn a year from 2016.

Other findings from the report, which was produced by Element Energy for RAB, are that:

* The electricity load created by appliances means that renewables are essential to meet zero carbon standards even where homes are built to the highest levels of energy efficiency.
* The proposed timescale of the Government's green homes policy creates very little demand for renewable energy until 2016. From 2016 the market for onsite renewables rises dramatically and could be worth between £1.4bn and £3bn a year, with the base case estimating a market of £2.3bn a year.
* The projected annual uptake of on site generation is greater than UK manufacturing capacity for all renewable energy technology, and greater than global manufacturing capacity for a number of the most cost effective technologies.
* Technologies that are likely to experience the highest levels of uptake are biomass combined heat and power and solar photovoltaics, but this is sensitive to the level at which government allows offsite generation.
* The average cost of meeting zero carbon standards from on site renewables is expected to be £6,000 per dwelling, with higher costs for small urban developments and the lowest costs for large rural developments.

On the basis of the reports findings RAB, which supports the zero carbon homes policy, has made three headline recommendations to Government:

1. Change the proposed policy to create earlier stimulation for onsite renewable energy e.g. Encouraging local authorities to use the planning system to require zero carbon standards in the largest housing developments in advance of 2016.

2. Accelerate the technological and commercial development of Biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) E.g. making deployment of biomass CHP a priority of the Environmental Transformation Fund.

3. Minimise the use of remote offsite energy generation in meeting zero carbon standards E.g by settting a tight cap on its use and a high ' buy-out' cost for any offsite generation fund.