Solar farm idea is failing to shine

I CAN’T help but agree with last week’s Ashbourne News Telegraph Comment that caution must be exercised when giving over a patch of land, which we may need in the next decade as a cemetery extension, for a solar farm that might or might not be of interest to its neighbours, Severn Trent.

The field behind the allotment site is currently grazed and, as I understand it, grazing can continue with panels in place.

But surely consideration needs to be given for the fact we might need to expand the allotments one day – and that’s even before we face the uncomfortable issue of how much space we have left at the cemetery.

The prospect of the Derbyshire Dales producing its own power is appealing, but it sounds very much like this is being planned with commercial incentives in mind.

Talk of selling it to Severn Trent and its water treatment works where, incidentally, there is already a sizeable solar array, feels like feeding industry when we could be powering homes.

With that in mind, and fully acknowledging the urgent need for the council to lower its carbon footprint, one has to wonder why green fields are being considered for solar generation, rather than the acres of rooftops in their own estate.

And, once the council has fitted every suitable square inch of their rooftops with solar panels, no doubt producing far more energy than a field in Ashbourne could muster, the council should be obliging developers at the point of planning consent to fit solar panels on their roofs too. Imagine if all the planned new units at Ashbourne’s industrial estate were generating their own power.

But, I suppose, that’s not going to serve up the promise of £3.5 million in revenue for the council’s coffers, is it?

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