Delivering electricity less than 25% of the time, without massive subsidies we wouldn’t even be talking about solar power. By far and away the most expensive way of electricity generation there is – and utterly useless from sunset to sunrise – there is no argument in favour of connecting solar panels to an integrated power grid. Period.
Now that millions of acres have been carpeted with panels around the world, the loss of the ability to use that land for any other purpose is becoming painfully obvious, even to planners and bureaucrats that were once all-in when it came to the grand wind and solar transition.
In Britain, a ministerial statement suggesting that farmland in Britain might be reserved for that purpose, has met with the usual apoplexy from those that couldn’t care less about where your food comes from, or what the countryside looks like. They care as much about those matters, as they do about where you get your power from when the sun sets.
UK warns against solar farms on farmland
Energy Live News
Dimitris Mavrokefalidis
15 May 2024
The government has issued a warning to local authorities today, urging them to refrain from granting planning permission for solar farms on high-quality farmland unless it’s deemed essential.
The move comes as part of efforts to balance food security with the need for renewable energy sources.
Meanwhile, the Renewable Energy Association (REA) has responded, underlining existing planning guidelines that already address concerns over the use of agricultural land for solar farms.
The REA emphasised the importance of solar energy in achieving net zero targets and called on the government to publish a Solar Roadmap outlining strategies for meeting ambitious solar deployment targets.
Dr Nina Skorupska, Chief Executive Officer of the REA, said: “Restricting further solar development would pose a serious threat to the jobs and investment created by the solar industry and the large solar farm sector that is being built now largely without public billpayers’ support.
“It would undermine the government’s ability to meet a net zero power system by 2035 and keep us locked in to expensive fossil fuels at a huge cost to households and businesses.
“Therefore we call on the government to publish their Solar Roadmap following the work of the solar taskforce as soon as possible, to outline how else we can meet their stretching but essential 70GW solar PV deployment target.”
Energy Live News
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