New campaign against large-scale solar developments

A new campaign has been launched which aims to highlight some of the issues associated with large-scale solar installations on land. ‘Stop Oversized Solar’ claims that up to 5% of cropland is now set for solar development, threatening to take farmland out of use in some of the UK’s best food-producing regions. It is claimed that solar sites in the pipeline would cover around 655,000 acres – the equivalent of Derbyshire.

Stop Oversized Solar brings together a group of volunteers from across the UK committed to revealing the risks of some of the UK’s solar mega schemes, which could see warehouse, retail and industrial rooftop installations and other small scale, local schemes crowded out of grid connections – even though they are promoted in DESNZ’s new Solar Roadmap. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) which is responsible for energy system operations, has already warned that connection queues are over-subscribed for solar. This is also likely to trigger more solar power switch-offs in the summer and NESO has already ordered solar sites to power down this year, meaning scheme owners are effectively paid to stop generating electricity.

Professor Tony Day of the Stop Oversized Solar campaign comments: “The government’s strategy on solar is wrong – and the solar data that we are exposing is disturbing. The pipeline is now massively over target, with an area of farmland the size of Derbyshire set to be covered in solar panels running into hundreds of millions. The more solar capacity we install, the more we depend on an unreliable source of energy.

“And we are highlighting that targets have been manipulated after lobbying from the highly commercial solar sector, not based on need. We struggle to get even 10% average energy yields on solar, so it’s much more logical to prioritise local solar schemes like commercial rooftop arrays or car park canopies instead of grid-scale mega schemes on good farmland. Now we could see these sensible schemes squeezed out while even more super-sized schemes get the grid connections.

“With hundreds of thousands of acres of UK farmland set to get consent nodded through for a change of use, and many solar developers part of international groups or with international private equity backing, this rural land-grab is controversial and should set alarm bells ringing. We are sleepwalking into a colossal countryside land-take.”