Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumUK Env. Secretary: "It Makes My Heart Sink To See Row Upon Row Of Solar Panels"
Uh, OK . . .
The Environment Secretary, Liz Truss, came under fire yesterday after branding solar farms a blight on the landscape and announcing plans to scrap subsidies for new developments. Campaigners accused Ms Truss, a Tory, of echoing the language and behaviour of her predecessor, Owen Paterson, who repeatedly clashed with renewable energy advocates by opposing wind farms and championing fracking while he was in office.
Ms Truss, who took over from Mr Paterson in July, announced on Sunday that farmers will no longer be able to claim subsidies for filling fields with solar panels, in a government drive to ensure that more agricultural land is dedicated to crops and food. Im very concerned that a lot of land is being taken up with solar farms. They are ugly, a blight on the countryside, and push production of meat and other traditional British produce overseas, said Ms Truss, pointing out that the UK already has 250 solar farms. Im not against them per se theyre fine on commercial roofs and school roofs but its a big problem if we are using land that can grow crops, fruit and vegetables, she added.
Bob Ward, director of policy at the London School of Economics Grantham Institute, said Ms Truss was in danger of sounding like Mr Paterson, pointing out that he also used the word blight last week to describe windfarms during his attack on the green blob at the heart of government.
One would hope that the new Environment Secretary does not see it as her job to be as aggressively anti-renewable energy as her predecessor. Instead of a rhetorical attack on how ugly renewable energy is, she should be talking about the risks of climate change, Mr Ward added.
EDIT
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/environment-secretary-liz-truss-under-fire-over-plan-to-scrap-solar-farm-subsidies-9804965.html
ladjf
(17,320 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,263 posts)I assume there are no technical qualifications for the job -- only political ones.
exboyfil
(17,863 posts)productive agricultural land for solar panels. Problem is less pronounced for wind power.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)[font size=5]Lincolnshire is a dumping ground for solar farms, says councillor[/font]
[font size=3]More than 40 applications are currently being considered by local authorities, with plans for the UK's largest solar farm approved earlier this year.
County councillor Colin Davie said the renewable energy industry was targeting land used for food production.
Industry representatives said farming and solar could work "hand-in-hand" if the right sites were chosen.
Mr Davie said he supported the use of brownfield sites, such as what is thought to be the largest solar farm in the UK, planned for the old RAF base in Faldingworth, near Lincoln.
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dbackjon
(6,578 posts)No reason to put it on good ag land - when there is not enough food out there.
There is enough building rooftops, parking lots, etc that could be converted and covered.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)The most fundamental human energy need is for the kilocals we ingest.
If you are importing food you would have grown, it's likely that it is a net CO2 producing strategy rather than GHG-reducing strategy.
Plus it is bad for the economy as whole. There's plenty of non-producing land and rooftop which can be used for solar. The last problem is that in rural districts with low pops, the existing grid may not be able to handle and transfer the load on a "good" generation day. Germany has that problem, and it results in some of the electricity being dumped.
ZombieHorde
(29,047 posts)Having solar panels on as many roofs as possible may not be a bad idea.