Buyers looking for a new home in the U.K. will soon be able to go zero carbon, as part of a government program to build a number of self-sustaining eco-villages around the country.

English Partnerships, the government's national regeneration agency, picked the developer for the first project today, which is expected to go up in Hanham Hall, near Bristol.

Planning permission for the village will be submitted in the spring.

"With an aim to hopefully start on site in the summer of next year. And then, if everything goes to plan, it should be completed in 2010," Lucy Aldington, spokeswoman for English Partnerships, told Cleantech.com

The eco-village will include 150 homes on the 16 acre site, all powered by a biomass-fueled combined heat and power plant.

Total construction costs for the project were not disclosed, but the agency set a benchmark cost of £60,000 per home in its Design for Manufacture competition earlier this year.

The regeneration agency said at least a third of the homes will be affordable, and there will be retail and office space in the village as well.

Newcastle-based Barratt Developments, the No. 2 homebuilder in the U.K., will create the new community at the site of the former Hanham Hall Hospital.

Homes in the village must meet the government's highest ecological standard, Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, which calls for zero carbon, minimal water use, building materials from sustainable sources, and a low impact on the local ecosystem.

Take a look at the Hanham Hall home design here >>

"We have set a world-beating target that all new homes must be zero carbon by 2016," said Yvette Cooper, U.K. housing and planning minister, in a statement.

"People said this couldn't be done, but, in fact, this first Carbon Challenge site shows that developers are already preparing to build the first major development of zero carbon homes."

Hanham Hall was the first site identified under the government's Carbon Challenge program, which aims to deliver zero carbon homes and communities in advance of the regulations in 2016.

Other areas set to get their own eco-villages include the 17 acre South Bank site in Peterborough, which is expected to have up to 450 homes.

English Partnerships announced a shortlist of developers for that site, including Barratt, and plans to name its preferred developer in the summer of 2008, with a target of starting work on site in the summer of 2009.

"We want to build more homes but also to higher standards," said Cooper. "We've set up plans for ten eco-towns."

"These Carbon Challenge eco-villages are now leading the way, showing what can be done. This marks a revolution in the way we design and build homes."

Bickershaw near Wigan and Brodsworth in Doncaster were also picked to get eco-villages. English Partnerships said the two former coalfield communities were devastated by pit closures in the 1980s.

Bickershaw is expected to get 650 new zero carbon homes, with Brodsworth consisting of 500 eco-friendly houses.

English Partnerships said it plans to invite bids from developers on Bickershaw and Brodsworth in early 2008.

In addition to getting power from biomass, the Hanham Hall site will also be water conscious. The developer plans to install low usage devices throughout the village, as well as site-wide rainwater harvesting to supply toilets and washing machines.

And Barratt expects a 50 percent reduction in surface water runoff, alleviating erosion and flooding, by using ponds, swales and weirs integrated into the surrounding area.

Barratt will be working with Irish building products company Kingspan Group for supplies, using Kingspan's TEK building products, where the complete building is delivered to the site in kit-form ready for construction.

The TEK system includes structural insulated panels based on insulated core timber wall and roof panels.

Not only will the eco-friendly houses be well insulated, but Kingspan plans to make the walls in an eco-friendly way. According to English Partnerships, all timber off cuts will either be reused or recycled along with all plastic, cardboard, paper and steel strapping.

The agency said off cuts from the main Kingspan TEK panel manufacture will be recycled, and once combined with a new jointing technique, they can be connected to produce more structural insulated panels, maintaining structural integrity and minimizing waste within the factory.

More sites under the Carbon Challenge program, launched by the government in February, will be announced next year.