Are any of you guilty of nimbyism - objecting to solar farms?

i would happily have a solar farm or even a wind farm next to me. I really do not understand how the UK can meet the targets of reducing Co2 if we don't build more renewable sources. john Nettlesand others are totally against them - my question is why.

I think there must be a lot of space on roofs for solar panels before we take up green space. The drive for green field panels is simply driven by greedy landowners. And we need more wind turbines. Nuclear power is essential for base load and to help with national sufficiency. It's a great shame that governments were so slow to build more nuclear, mainly because of green zealots and those who confuse peaceful power with nuclear bombs.

Wind farms or solar farms are the answer. Wind farms out to sea are probably the best bet as it’s always windy out to sea.

All the solar farms around us are on land that would otherwise be used to grow crops.

Thanks Casdon.

A bandwagon for Truss then!

volver

I try to keep abreast of developments in solar panels, and I must say I had never heard any of this chat about using agricultural land until La Truss started pontificating about it a couple of weeks ago. Is this something that people have been worried about for a long time?

Or is it just another dead cat?

ps - welcome back Maw ??‍♀️ Thinking outside the box is definitely what we need, we agree!

It’s been raised pre La Truss in Wales I know, not sure about the other nations. My understanding is that bids were made and rejected to use sites that were cultivated for crops, as opposed to grazing land, which is of a lower quality. There was also a rejected bid for using land on the Gwent levels, which is a wetland area of SSI. A lot of bids apparently get refused before they get to the official bid status, because they don’t meet the criteria Natural Resources Wales determine.

Canadian Gran, the tidal lagoon power station at Rances, near St malo has been operating since 1964, it was opened by General de Gaulle. There has been some effect on the local ecosystem, that is inevitable, but nothing serious /tethys.pnnl.gov/project-sites/la-rance-tidal-barrage

This is another interesting link www.researchgate.net/publication/245409793_Comparing_environmental_effects_of_Rance_and_Severn_barrages

But you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs.

There are some reports of health issues for people living near wind turbines. I believe the very low frequency sound can cause headaches and nausea. So while I find them actually quite attractive, I wouldn't want to have a wind farm close to me.

As for solar panels, I agree industrial buildings can support panels on the roofs, instead of taking away good farmland. Also governments should do all they can to promote solar energy on a small scale for individual houses.

Tidal power - we need to look into this more! We saw a tidal power plant near St Malo and wondered why Canada hasn't invested more in this potential source of power. We have very high tidal range in our area, with very strong currents, so ideal for power generation. Of course I have no idea on the effect of tidal turbines on fish, but I hope this is a viable option for the future.

A farm near us has a huge field of solar panels, with free range chickens pottering about underneath when they are not shut away due to bird flu.

I have no problems with solar or wind farms.

It's been said before in the thread that not all land is suitable for sheep or cattle grazing and I would think that the owners of such land have considered and do look to leasing it to the energy companies. They can get up to £1000 per acre per year.

The article below shows that arable farming has become less profitable and farmers are consequently looking at leasing.

For years, Mandy Wilson and her husband ran a farm just south of Carlisle in Cumbria, UK. While her husband worked the wheat and barley fields, Mandy ran the on site equestrian centre. It wasn’t a perfect living, but it worked, until her husband died. “I had to hire contractors and it just wasn’t paying,” she says, “so I was going to sell up.”

Instead, she covered 30 acres of her land in solar panels. “It’s a lifesaver,” says Wilson, who doesn’t run the solar farm herself. She rents the land to an energy company, which turns out to be a much more reliable business venture than growing grain. “Farming has gone ludicrous,” she says. “It’s actually beyond a joke. It’s got to the point now where growing wheat and barley isn’t profitable.” That’s why she, and many farmers, are farming solar energy too.

She now earns £30,000 a year from the rent. The date of the article is 2020 but back then this farmer had just secured grid connection for another 100 acres for 2024.

Away from farming, I mentioned in my first post on the thread but new building regulations are now in force (June 2022) in that all new builds have to make use of solar.

ps - welcome back Maw ??‍♀️ Thinking outside the box is definitely what we need, we agree!

Errr, people have been saying things like locate them on commercial buildings, over car parks etc. etc. all the way through this thread...

Put the damn things anywhere that has the correct aspect. No need to panic about using valuable arable land.

But, we know that the UK hasn't been self sufficient in food since the 19th C, and never will be, so the loss of some acres (sorry, hectares) isn't really that significant in the long run.

I try to keep abreast of developments in solar panels, and I must say I had never heard any of this chat about using agricultural land until La Truss started pontificating about it a couple of weeks ago. Is this something that people have been worried about for a long time?

Or is it just another dead cat?

ps - welcome back Maw ??‍♀️ Thinking outside the box is definitely what we need, we agree!

I can’t help feeling there are better places for solar panels than on agricultural land. Apologies if this has been said already, but it is becoming increasingly clear that we do not produce enough to feed ourselves as a country and more funding and planning and support need to be channelled towards increasing our self sufficiency.
However sheep and cattle cannot graze on the top of office blocks, bus shelters or multi storey car parks . There is so much scope for solar panels in brownfield areas, on all new builds, on office blocks which seems to be currently neglected.
Shelters in car parks with solar panels linked to charging points are already in use in some places. We should not be competing for space but thinking outside the proverbial box.

Katie59

“Why are you so reluctant to tell us the source of your information, Katie59?. This is sheep husbandry nonsense. where are you getting it from?”

Family are in farming and this is how they look after sheep, and what all should be doing and mostly are

I don't recall seeing Welsh mountain sheep being rotated from field to field every month or so. I thought that they were left on the hills until brought down for the winter.

Chestnut

biglouis I have always said this, that no-one seems to object to the pylons in the countryside and the telegraph poles in the street, which all look hideous if you actually look at them. Yet they complain about wind turbines looking ugly.

People may not complain about existing structures but
they do complain about new proposals. I used to live in Suffolk, close to the coast and I don't recall anyone who didn't mind the miles of pylons marching across the countryside.

There are proposals for yet more pylons to carry power from Sizewell 3 across the county all the way to Tilbury despite the possibility of offshore transportation. As far as I can tell undersea transportation has been rejected in the original planning applications because it would significantly reduce the impact to communities in the north of England and in Scotland. Whatever that means.

13 MPs have written to the Minister for energy and climate change asking for the consultation to reconsider the undersea option.

Sizewll 3 is to be built and operated by EDF and the Chinese Nuclear Power Corporation. Do we really want foreign ownership of yet more utilities?

Mamardoit

The Sahara desert isn't in the EU. I doubt if Maggie could have stopped them.

I'm all for solar and wind power. However I do think solar panels should be in place on all warehouses and similar before valuable farmland is used. We are a small island with an ever increasing population and we need to produce food just as much as we did in WW2.

A bit late in responding but Thatcher didn't want to stop it, she just didn't want to join in the project. Probably didn't want to commit financially and she often didn't like EU projects.

In any event it still hasn't happened although there have been many studies with varying results.

Thanks. I thought of it nearer the surface perhaps and cooling the temperatures there.

Lathyrus

I have a question about geothermal volver and you seem to know a bit about it?

If it becomes a big thing and we draw large amounts f heat from the ground will it affect the ecosystem and the lives of all those little underground creatures?

Has anybody done any research on it? I can’t find anything.

I don't know a lot about it but I'll have a go ?

The heat is there anyway and is just "going to waste". It is generated far below the surface of the earth so I can't see it affecting ecosystems. My friends' house in Germany has a "pipe" or something below it that ducts the heat from far below the surface to their house and they use it for heating.

There's this, from National Geographic. education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/geothermal-energy

Totally agree with you about no government thinking ahead.

Long term thinking sadly lacking.

I have a question about geothermal volver and you seem to know a bit about it?

If it becomes a big thing and we draw large amounts f heat from the ground will it affect the ecosystem and the lives of all those little underground creatures?

Has anybody done any research on it? I can’t find anything.

I can't see anyone 'dismissing' renewables.

7:35 this morning. 22:56 on Thursday.

I agree that we need to do something to cover us in this emergency. But a big part of why we are in this emergency is that no governments have planned ahead to reduce our reliance on gas, which would led to a more balanced supply. So we need to start doing something about that now, not wait for the next crisis.

Just because something is a low percentage of the total now (e.g. wind in Andrew Neil's tweet) that doesn't mean it has to be a low proportion forever,

Coming late to the discussion but for what it’s worth we have a number of solar farms near us, one very close and honestly you don’t really know they are there behind the hedge.

Except they don’t crop and slurry spray the field anymore. And there’s loads more birds and butterflies around.

Win, win, really.

volver

M0nica

Volver No argument with you, in principle, but in times of urgency we need to concentrate time money and effort on those forms of alternative energy that can provide large quantities of energy. Currently the best for this are wind and water. Once we are virtually emission free, then we can explore the smaller scale low volume sources.

I think we generally agree M0nica. There is a lot of dismissal of renewables on here though and a lot of misunderstanding.

I can't see anyone 'dismissing' renewables. They are a long term solution, so of course we should be putting everything we have into building wind farms and solar panels, and any other form of renewable energy. But even if we managed to get enough renewable energy for 68 million people could this be relied on all year round? How long would it take to get it up and running and what do we do in the meantime?

Just seen this on Twitter M0nica ?

twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1563444566300438528

M0nica

Volver No argument with you, in principle, but in times of urgency we need to concentrate time money and effort on those forms of alternative energy that can provide large quantities of energy. Currently the best for this are wind and water. Once we are virtually emission free, then we can explore the smaller scale low volume sources.

I think we generally agree M0nica. There is a lot of dismissal of renewables on here though and a lot of misunderstanding.