The arguments around large solar farms

There are a growing number of applications for solar farms and the planned size of these farms is getting larger.

For the stakeholders involved, solar farms represent a very safe return on investment. They offer farmers a reliable income which is more than they get from growing crops and the companies involved are guaranteed predictable revenue and costs for 40 years.

There are some strong arguments in favour of larger solar farms:

• We have to have a lot more renewable energy to combat the impact of climate change. The UK target is for a solar capacity of 70 gigawatts by 2035 (currently we have c.15-20 gigawatts deployed).

• The national grid is designed to take power from a small number of large locations (like power stations). Taking power from smaller units requires significant network upgrades.

• The targeted 70 gigawatts will only require a land area equivalent to 0.5% of English farmland. Conversely climate change is by far the biggest risk to food production with wet weather alone predicted to reduce Britain's wheat crop by 25% this year.

The main arguments against the increasing reliance on these larger solar farms are:

• Huge farms cause major disruption to the look and feel of the local environment and therefore mitigation measures like buffer zones need much higher priority. The Sunnica solar farm planned on the Cambridgeshire / Suffolk border would stretches for miles and the battery storage of 6 metre containers will require over 70 acres alone.

• We shouldn’t use prime grade agricultural land as this should be preserved for food production. We should deploy as much solar as possible on brownfield sites and rooftops. Analysis suggests that this could generate 25 gigawatts of electricity annually. Many European countries are doing far more than the UK to prioritise roofs, car parks and brownfield sites.

• We are still not investing heavily in the grid infrastructure for connecting smaller sites.

• We should prioritise household production and storage of energy via solar panels and batteries.

• Energy cost savings from solar farms are not being passed on to the local community. There should be some kind of share ownership which would result in lower electricity bills.

• The apparent biodiversity net gain when a solar farm is deployed is just a reflection on the nature depleted state of most arable farm land.

Currently the market is geared up to primarily focus on larger solar farms. Other more distributed options are being ignored.