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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thanks Casdon.

A bandwagon for Truss then!

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

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.

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.

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.

Nuclear power is essential for base load and to help with national sufficiency.

Do you have figures to support that assertion? Preferably figures that are not produced by the nuclear industry.

There are lots of empty fields around my current home in the very North of Scotland. The land is fairly poor (I think) and used mainly for sheep farming. I would be happy to see it used for Solar Farms. We have several Wind Farms already, both on land and sea.

Every new building, residential or otherwise, should be required to have solar panels. Germany is far ahead of us in this.

kjmpde

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.

Read this thread and you'll realise that wind farms can be harmful to human and animal health, which is probably why some people are against them.

I don’t see we have any choice or solar pallets on everyone’s homes but can’t see government doing that

Isn't there still a huge question mark on the materials and energy used to manufacture solar panels, same with electric car batteries. We could be solving one problem but adding to another. What's the life expectancy of these solar panel farms? I'm not against the farms but careful consideration has to be given to their location and size. Drive throughout Scotland, the place is covered in wind turbines. Life expectancy in those things is apparently 20 years. How much energy is used to manufacture them?

Not exactly on point but I have been considering solar panels on my roof and wonder if any of you gransnetters who already have them have had problems with the wind getting under them or of birds or bats nesting underneath?

PS. Forgot to say that I would hate to have the fields near me full of solar panels, chose to live in a rural area because of the views amongst other things.

There are objections to a massive one near where I am moored. It will take hundreds of acres of prime farm land... The soil here is amazing. I think all factories and shopping complexes and supermarkets should have solar panels on top of them.

Well I'll repeat myself for all the people coming on here to ask the same questions that have already been asked and answered before on this thread.

No source of energy is perfect. (First Law of Thermodynamics, if you want to look it up.)

So however we generate energy in the future, it will not be perfect. We will have to source and manufacture the materials to generate it, deal with the by products and recycle what we can. We cannot continue pumping carbon into the atmosphere and we cannot rely on nuclear because it is even more harmful to the environment than carbon.

I suspect the sources coming up with the issues that surround wind and solar are invested in Oil and Gas, or nuclear. Clock's been ticking for 40 years. Its now or never.

I think we all have to accept that our landscapes will change dramatically as more solar and wind farms are established. As much as I love our lovely countryside, and rambling, green fields, we have already seen our landscape changed by acres of poly tunnels. It is a changing world and if we want the convenience of home grown power, we have to concede some things. This is the way of the modern world.

Of course if we really want a long term solution to the pollution caused by humans the answer is to reduce the human population to sustainable levels.

I’m not holding my breath?