Friday, 28 November 2014

What are the arguments for and against solar farms?

This blog has reported on the failures of planning applications for solar farms in the Sid Valley:
Futures Forum: Solar Plan for Sidmouth: another application rejected

 Recently, the Environment Minister has shown her opposition to solar farms:
Eclipse of the solar farms: Environment Secretary Liz Truss tells farmers 'no more handouts for ugly fields of glass...grow veg!'  | Daily Mail Online
Solar farms 'blight on countryside' | Daily Mail Online
BBC News - Solar farms are a blight on the landscape, says minister

 ... which means that there will be fewer government grants:
Defra solar farm subsidies for 'blight on countryside' to be cut | Western Daily Press

 What is the reasoning behind this policy?
ARGUMENT ONE: FARMLAND:

 The main argument Minister Truss has given is that solar farms take up much valuable agricultural land - and yet the assessments of exactly how much land have not been made:


Defra collected no data on solar farmland before scrapping subsidy


By Western Daily Press | Posted: October 29, 2014


Solar farms have sprung up at many sites across the West Country, gaining much opposition. Ministers have admitted that Liz Truss' cancellation of solar farm subsidies was made with no data on area covered

The Government has made no estimate of how much arable land has been taken over by solar farms, despite raising concerns it was a "real problem", ministers have admitted.

Environment Secretary Liz Truss had voiced fears that "ugly" rows of solar panels were taking up land that could be used for food production as she announced the end of £100 an acre grants to farmers and landowners for the schemes.

However, the scrapping of the subsidy has been widely rubbished, with the size of the subsidy amounting to a tiny proportion of potential profits.

But in a written parliamentary answer, Farming Minister George Eustice has admitted no assessment had been made of the amount of arable land that could be used for commercially farmed fruits or vegetables which now hosted solar arrays.

The Environment Secretary said last week she would end grants worth £2 million a year available via her department from the European Union's Common Agriculture Policy, calling solar farms a "blight on the countryside".

She also told the Mail On Sunday: "I want Britain to lead the world in food and farming and to do that we need enough productive agricultural land. I'm very concerned that a lot of our land is being taken up with solar farms. We've already got 250 of them and we've got 10,000 football pitches worth of new solar farms in the pipeline.

"Food and farming is our number one manufacturing industry, the whole food chain represents £100 billion in our economy, and it is a real problem if we are using productive agricultural land for solar farms."

But the answer to a question from Labour's Paul Flynn, asking what estimate the Environment Secretary "has made of the area of land occupied by solar panel arrays that was arable land usable for economically farmed fruits or vegetables" revealed that no estimate had been undertaken.

Alasdair Cameron, of the Friends of the Earth group, said: ''The fact that the minister does not even know how much farmland has been used for solar shows that this announcement had little to do with environmental policy. Solar is on course to be cheaper than gas within just a few years and will be one of the biggest sources of energy in the future."

Defra collected no data on solar farmland before scrapping subsidy | Western Daily Press

 One must beg the question of why farmers have been told to 'diversify' into other 'more profitable areas' for the past decades:
Diversifying farming businesses - Detailed guidance - GOV.UK
A ROUGH GUIDE TO THE UK FARMING CRISIS : 3 - The UK farming crisis: which crisis do you mean? | Corporate Watch
Farmers till the soil of tourism to safeguard their cash crop - Telegraph

 And yet on the other hand, there are fears that grade one farmland will be continued to be built on:
Developing farmland: regulations on land use - Detailed guidance - GOV.UK
Grade 1&2 Farmland | Villages Action Group

 ... for example at Cranbrook:

A large part of the proposed development will result in the loss of high-grade
agricultural land, at a time when agricultural land is at a premium. Once
developed, this high grade agricultural land can never be utilised for future
food security

Response to EDDC Draft LOCAL PLAN 2006 - 2026 from BROADCLYST PARISH COUNCIL 
An honest look at Cranbrook and ‘growth point’ - Claire Wright

ARGUMENT TWO: AONB:

 The main reasons given for rejecting the solar farms applications in the Sid Valley have been that they would be built on AONB which should be protected.
13/1390/MFUL | Construction of solar farm comprising solar arrays, switch gear housing, CCTV cameras and security fencing | Land To The Southwest & West Of Great Houndbeare Farm Aylesbeare Exeter
Solar farm would be ‘out of character’ with AONB - News - Sidmouth Herald
Futures Forum: "It has not been demonstrated that development in the highly protected AONB landscape is essential."

 However, the District Council's own policies have shown great inconsistency over the past years when it comes to 'building on AONB', despite promises recently reiterated:
SIDMOUTH: Inappropriate development will be rejected says council - View from Sidmouth
On the one hand, some planning applications have been rejected on the grounds that the development would have too negative an impact on the AONB - although against the advice of District Council planning officers:
Controversial plans for massive indoor pig farm in East Devon AONB rejected by Government planning inspector | Exeter Express and Echo

 On the other, the District Council seems to have set a precedent in allowing AONB land to be built on:
AONB digger protest at Sidmouth EDDC offices - News - Sidmouth Herald
New homes plan for Woolbrook - View from Sidmouth
and:
and:
Village anger over new homes approval - News - Sidmouth Herald
Apart from the 'official line', solar farms and wind turbines are by and large seen as intrusive, especially in AONBs:
CPRE Dorset - Wind Turbines & Solar Farms Campaign

 And yet the only Sidmouth Town Councillor - who is in principle against solar farms - to vote for the recent solar farm planning application, on visiting the proposed site has said this 'would cause minimal visual disruption':
Futures Forum: Solar Plan for Sidmouth: another application rejected
ARGUMENT THREE: UGLY:

 Minister Truss has called the solar farm a 'blight on the landscape', and yet when such installations are compared with the impact on the landscape of other means of generating electricity, one is left wondering:
Futures Forum: The aesthetics of development: power plants and windfarms

 This design for a conventional power station is somewhat of a rarity:

A waste-to-energy power plant in Denmark that blows smoke rings

... and has a ski slope

Waste-to-energy power stations are usually ugly eyesores, but a new power plant planned for Copenhagen is designed to blow smoke rings and double as a ski slope. The facility has been announced as the winner of a competition to design a new waste-to-energy plant for Copenhagen, with expected completion in 2016.
Waste-to-energy power stations are usually ugly eyesores, but a new power plant planned for Copenhagen is different: it is designed to blow smoke rings and double as a ski slope. The facility has been announced as the winner of a competition to design a new waste-to-energy plant for Copenhagen, with expected completion in 2016.
Picture: Rendering ©2010 by BIG/Rex Features































A waste-to-energy power plant in Denmark that blows smoke rings and has a ski slope - Telegraph

 But normally, such things are not a pretty site:
Somerset Green Party | Wind turbines are ugly? So are motorways, airports, power stations...
ARGUMENT FOUR: COMMUNITY:

 There have been a lot of promises made by solar farm developers that these projects would 'benefit the local community':
Greater community say on wind turbines and solar farms - Press releases - GOV.UK
The wisdom of community benefit payments?

 However, there are many who would chose to differ:

 For example, the comments here are all pretty scathing on 'community benefit':
13/1390/MFUL | Construction of solar farm comprising solar arrays, switch gear housing, CCTV cameras and security fencing | Land To The Southwest & West Of Great Houndbeare Farm Aylesbeare Exeter
13/1202/MFUL | Proposed solar farm, comprising the erection of solar arrays, equipment housing, fencing and ancillary equipment. | Land To West & North West Pithayes Farm Whimple

 Another recent example from Cornwall was very sceptical:
Community 'short-changed by £600,000' over solar farm | Cornish Guardian
Futures Forum: Solar farms in East Devon..... an approval at Exmouth.......... and a new application at Sidbury.....

 Alternatively, if the solar farms were actually owned and run by the local community, it might be a different matter:

Community involvement with solar farms: what it means for councillors, planners and community groups

by  on March 19, 2014 in Blog
wmillAbove: the largest community-owned solar farm in the UK: Westmill Solar Coop near Oxford, where 5000 local people own £16 million of solar PV.
Many places across the country are seeing solar farm developments. Interestingly, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has also recently issued guidance that new renewable developments should have a degree of community ownership (see below).
What, therefore, might the appearance of these solar farm projects mean for planners, councillors and affected communities? Together with Community Energy South, we’ve worked up a guide as to how this might work in practice...
Community involvement with solar farms: what it means for councillors, planners and community groups - Brighton Energy Cooperative

 See also:
Futures Forum: Small-scale, locally-controlled power generation
ARGUMENT FIVE: SCALE:

 A related issue is the massive scale of most of the solar farms:
Huge solar farm plan faces rejection - News - Sidmouth Herald - Mobile
Major solar farm approved despite concerns - News - Exmouth Journal - Mobile
Concern over 70 acre solar panel site near Exeter | Exeter Express and Echo

 It seems to be the sheer massiveness of such developments which raise most concern:

Planning inspector Brian Cook ruled the scheme would have “fundamentally changed the appearance and character of the landscape”.
Landscape more important than solar farms | East Devon Alliance
BBC News - Decision to reject solar farm in Devon upheld

 In which case, why not build something smaller?
The Cost-Benefit Analysis Of A Proposed Small Scale Solar Farm At Middlebury College | Sun Is The Future
Small solar farm given green light by planners (From Evesham Journal)

 Here is an overview from the industry - looking at most of the issues above:
Small-scale Solar-farm - Sunsaver Solarfarms
ARGUMENT SIX: ALTERNATIVES:

 The most contentious arguments, however, are over which forms of energy are 'more efficient':
Futures Forum: What are the most efficient forms of energy?
Futures Forum: How to interpret a study comparing fracking, solar power and wind turbines... “That makes it look like we are saying that solar panels are all around worse than shale gas, which... is not really what we’ve said. We are certainly not trying to say that shale gas is greener than renewables.”

 But the picture changes if you consider the local scale:
Futures Forum: What are the most efficient forms of energy.. at a local level?

 And of course, it's not just about producing but using energy:
Futures Forum: What are the most efficient forms of energy? ... It might not be just a question of how to generate power the best way ... By 2026 100% of German houses will be zero energy consumers. In the UK it will be under 5%.

 One of the biggest arguments is between solar and nuclear:
Futures Forum: What are the most efficient forms of energy? another look at nuclear...
Futures Forum: Solar farms in East Devon: the approvals... and the debate...

 The New Economics Foundation is in no doubt:

Energy round-up: nuclear future?

Photo credit:   James Marvin Phelps
NOVEMBER 28, 2014 // BY: STEPHEN DEVLIN

Three things you shouldn't miss this week

  1. Article: Hinkley Point nuclear plant 'threatened by Areva financial crisis - Reactor-maker Areva's stake in new UK nuclear plant called into question amid financial difficulties.
  1. Chart: Renewables catching nuclear:
  1. Article: Oil price slump to trigger new US debt default crisis as Opec waits - Falling oil prices and US shale drillers drowning in a sea of debt could be the spark for a new credit crunch.
New Economics Foundation
 

Good morning,

 The UK’s nuclear plans looked even shakier this week as Areva, shareholder and designer of the planned new Hinckley C reactors, saw its shares plunge following financial problems caused by its long delayed nuclear reactor in Finland. According to the Times, the government has responded by ordering a secret review of the financial feasibility of the Hinckley C project.

The project, which could provide 7% of UK electricity demand, is budgeted at £16 billion by lead developer EDF, but the European Commission reckons the bill will be nearer £25 billion. The plans have already generated huge controversy, not least because of the guaranteed price for EDF of £92.50/MWh for 35 years, twice the wholesale cost of electricity - despite government assurances that it would not subsidise new nuclear. Given that Hinckley won’t be completed till 2023 at the earliest, and a similar plant in France is already running 4 years late, would the government do better to pull the plug now?

 A key argument for new nuclear is that it will provide reliable low carbon baseload power, in contrast to intermittent renewables. Another is that it will provide high quality jobs in what would be the biggest construction project in Europe. One prominent proponent has been former government Chief scientist Sir David King, but now he may be changing his mind. According to Geoffrey Lean in the Telegraph, King instead advocates a focus on energy storage, which would allow decarbonisation with renewables alone. He still sees a role for nuclear in less sunny climates, like the UK, but advocates smaller modular reactors – also favoured by ex Environment Minister Owen Paterson. Unfortunately so far these reactors exist only on the drawing board.

The plain fact is that nuclear costs continue to rise, while those of renewables are plunging. With solar on the brink of grid parity in many countries, it won’t be long until the choice is clear as day.


 Best wishes,
Stephen Devlin
Co-editor, Energy Crunch

Energy round-up: nuclear future? | New Economics Foundation
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