Why we should enthusiastically back solar farms in the countryside

As far as the prospect of solar farms in the countryside are concerned, I simply say 'the more the merrier'. Surely if we are facing a climate crisis then we should do our best to welcome cheap, clean, energy sources. And large scale solar farms that are now being proposed in quite large capacities are coming in very cheap to the extent that they are being developed on a 'subsidy free' basis.

Solar farms already constitute a very important contribution to renewable energy in the UK.   A little over half of UK based solar electricity is generated from them, the rest coming from domestic solar installations or on commercial properties. I do often hear the refrain 'they should put the panels on roofs, not on farmland' - too often as far as I am concerned. 

Well I'm certainly in favour of clearing away the contractual and regulatory obstacles that get in the way of putting solar panels on as many roofs as we can. However it is simply wrong to imply, if that is what people mean, that if planning consent for a solar farm is refused, then somehow the panels will magically reappear on some suitable roof somewhere else. They won't. We shall simply have that much less solar power generation. Neither are the solar farms easily transferable to some other piece of land that maybe preferred - land availability that is sufficiently proximate to the right electricity connections is in short supply.

Some say solar pv should not be on farmland. I disagree. Yes, there's a balance to be struck between localised food production and clean energy production - but in this case there's not really much of an argument that I can see, and not much of a balance. A small proportion of farmland in the UK will generate a massive amount of solar electricity.

Around 66 per cent of the UK is farmland, yet it would take coverage of  barely 1 per cent of the UK's land to generate the equivalent of the UK's entire current electricity production. That's not much of a sacrifice really - the benefits of the clean energy surely outweigh the loss of a very small proportion of farmland. Are we really, seriously arguing, that in the teeth of what we call the climate crisis, that this is beyond the limit of what we can sacrifice. Surely not!

I am afraid also that I completely fail to understand the aesthetic arguments that are sometimes posed against solar farms. I must say I have no sympathy with the landscape objections to wind power either, and think that the noise issues are invariably overstated, but surely the local impacts of solar farms are even less? You cannot see them from a long distance, and indeed, when you can see them from a medium distance you can hardly often distinguish them from strawerry net cloches and polytunnels. I haven't heard many people complaining about the sight of them!

 I don't see any biodiversity arguments against solar farms on farmland. Indeed, if they are placed on so-called 'prime' agricultural land they are almost certainly giving the land a break from the large quantities of chemicals that sterlise the land! I have heard arguments that solar farms will actually improve the biodiversity compared to intensive agriculture. What I am certain about is that they cannot be worse in ecological terms! The main difference will be that the land will be used to generate lots of clean energy rather than soak up chemicals!

If there are ever any ecological doubts about solar farms, it won't (in my view) be about the ones that are farmlands; rather this will be about the impact on areas of special wildlife interest. 

Indeed recently there was a planning controversy about the Cleve Hill solar park, which was given ministerial approval in May. The Kent Wildlife Trust were very concerned about the proximity of the solar park to protected wildlife areas. However, there were some changes made and the Trust commented: 'we have secured larger buffers to the ditches, more mitigation land and better management, so even if it gets permission it will not be as bad as the initial application, and some species may even be better off'. Now that's hardly a ringing endorsement, as they say, but it doesn't suggest to me that it is the end of the world either. 

On balance I am clearly minded to support this project. It is a project that is going to use come cutting edge technology, and it will also install some batteries that will help the balancing capabilities of the electricity grid. At 350 MW capacity this will add a substantial amount of solar generation. The UK's solar generation is currently up to around 4 per cent of UK electricity demand(from about 13.5 GW), as measured  on an annual basis.

And also I'm glad to see there should be steady flow of larger solar farms coming up in the future. Australian owned company Macquarie is planning an initial 1 GW.  It really should be a cause of great celebration that companies are planning solar pv farms without even any contracts being offered by the Government. We should be cheering, not wringing our hands over this.