I was recently told by a planning consultant :- ‘definitely no solar panels’ (his words). Surely if the hut is off-grid and you have battery powered lighting, then the most green way to charge the batteries is from Solar Panels. Any advice would be appreciated.
When I did my planning application I was told by the planning officer that I could have a solar system, but it had to be part of the application and shown on the architects drawings. I think it depends who your local council is. Best wishes with the project.
Thanks so much Stuart. Just starting the process for planning permission for the hut. I’ll include Solar Panels. Wish me luck 
Good luck with it, be patient, mine took 6 months to get approval. If you follow the planning guidelines from reforesting scotland and jump through all the council hoops you should be OK. Fingers crossed for you.
Great info, thank you. 
(for planning permission). Hopefully it should be approved 
as there are huts built by owners who rent the space on the edge of a lake, bordering our Woodland, but you never know!
It seems odd that the planning consultant (presumably giving you advice on your behalf) would say this. Perhaps they have knowledge of the local planners and know that they are somehow ‘against’ solar panels? It would be worth finding out why the consultant gave you this advice.
To run a hut, you would only need a small panel, say 4ft x 2ft, 130watt, up on the roof, out of sight. Not a big, ugly ground array.
An architect once told me that it can be best to keep the application as simple as possible. Just the basics. The less detail you give, the fewer questions they can ask.
E.g. if you say ‘there will be a solar panel’ the planners may ask; “What kind of panel? Size? Colour? Visibility? How will batteries be safely managed and disposed of? Will there be an invertor and 240V appliances used? Will any wiring meet building regulations? Where will panel be mounted? etc. Whereas if your application has no mention of panels then there’s nothing for them to query. They may ask, they may not.
Of course, anything you do install at your hut must be environmentally responsible, safe and not cause a nuisance or eyesore to other people or animals.
People do tend to go a bit daft with power and lighting these days, from what I see on YouTube etc. So maybe the planners are getting wary of this kind of stuff.
To be honest, one of the great things about an overnight in a hut is the way the lack of artificial light forces you into following the rythm of nature; gets dark>go to sleep>gets light, get up. This in itself can be very restorative.
Hi William, thanks so much for your comments. I have asked the planning consultant for further info (just waiting to hopefully hear back). Keeping it simple is certainly what we had in mind, so will NOT include Solar Panels as I mentioned in my earlier post. Being disconnected from the outside world sounds good to us, so simple lighting etc will be the plan.
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A friend of mine who was having planning issues with his house was told by a retired planning officer that it can sometimes be more productive asking for forgiveness rather than permission I can’t believe how negative and uninformed some planners can be their default setting is usually no