Solar farms might not look attractive, but they are pretty useful
Isn’t it time we started to embrace the benefits of solar farms, asks RIPPON in a week it has been revealed two of different sizes are being proposed in South Derbyshire
NEWS that the Government is to be asked to consider a proposal to create a 500-acre solar farm in South Derbyshire was bound to divide opinion. Any large-scale project, particularly one on rural land, is bound to cause concern.
The massive proposal at Catton, and a smaller one five miles away at Lullington, are certain to have an impact on their respective areas.
There will be objections and accusations of nimbyism. And that’s to be expected. There is nothing wrong with wanting to protect our homes and our environment. We grow used to the status quo and it’s perfectly natural to fear change.
But we probably all agree climate change, increasingly poor air quality and energy insecurity is scary. Then again, none of us wants to live next door to the means to solve this.
And here’s the dilemma – how do you balance the two?
Perhaps we need to be honest with ourselves about the realities?
I’d much rather all our countryside remain untouched, and our views unobstructed, by roads, railway lines, factories, and power cables. But I’m also rather glad I can travel from one end of the country to another in comfort, and at speed.
That I can eat food manufactured far away. And that I can press a button on my laptop and the miracle of electricity springs it to life.
While we’d all like to live in a perfect world, none of us do. We must find a balance and a space for these inconvenient conveniences.
Are solar farms really that ugly? Granted, row after row of solar panels is not what you’d call a pretty crop, but it’s a darned useful one.
And you do get used to these changes. Remember how jarring it was to see the first solar panels on houses? Nowadays, like tv aerials and satellite dishes, we barely notice them. The expense of installing solar panels to a domestic roof is so high that few of us invest. But large-scale solar farms are a different matter because they don’t utilise much power, and pretty much everything they create can be diverted elsewhere or sold on. Visual impact aside, it seems to be a win-win.
Whether to give over hundreds of acres of farmland to site a solar farm is a difficult decision, but these things must go somewhere and the fact solar power is cleaner than fossil fuel power stations, safer than nuclear plants, and quieter than wind turbines means they can be sited just about anywhere – although it’s better if it’s flat and south-facing.
Although solar power does not represent as big a share of UK electricity production as wind turbines, it releases no harmful emissions or pollutants. It is completely renewable and is guaranteed to be available to us pretty much endlessly – well, until the sun stops shining, by which point – in an estimated five billion years – we’ll have more pressing things to worry about.
Speaking of sunshine, you might think our less than predictable weather is an issue. Not so. While spring and summer provide more energy than autumn and winter, modern solar panels can gather energy from any type of daylight – even on the cloudiest of days.
But we don’t need to abandon entirely smaller scale solar generation. As they say, every little helps. So why can’t we ensure that solar panels are placed on the roofs of existing and new buildings? Why can’t solar power be a prerequisite of planning permission for large developments? Think of the benefits if all our factories, warehouses, sports stadiums, shopping complexes and transportation hubs installed solar panels on their roofs. We could make even the ugliest of buildings work to our benefit.
It seems cleaner and renewable energy is going to be the future. The year 2020 was the first in which the UK used more electricity from renewables than it did fossil fuels. There are now hundreds of large solar farms across the UK, with dozens more planned each year.
Isn’t it time that we all began embracing that?