Solar Farms are Not a Choice but a Necessity

David Jones, WinACC trustee The Godsfield solar farm application outside Alresford, Hampshire, is a current example of how the transition to a new economy stirs passions.

No one wants the nuclear power station/wind farm/solar array where they live, but if we want to preserve our energy-intensive lifestyle, something somewhere has to give.

Ironically, the Godsfield site is as good as a rural solar array can be–deeply secluded yet accessible to the grid; because it converts an arable field to grassland it delivers a substantial biodiversity benefit, and the proposers can be credited with setting aside a substantial area for native planting to screen the site from a footpath.

Surely there is no disagreement that we will need more energy to power our cars and homes in future and that this should come from renewable electricity rather than oil, petrol and gas–those old, twentieth-century technologies which made us comfortable at the expense of future generations? The boffins advising government policy through the 6th Carbon Budget predict a more than doubling of electricity needs to 2050.

While we hope for “killer app” carbon capture technology to save us–perhaps with a fair wind this will deliver by the 2040s–in the meantime we need to find huge quantities of clean, cheap renewable electricity.

The scientists and the economists agree: wind and solar are now the cheapest energy on the planet. The problem is where to put it.

Offshore wind can provide a decent chunk of the UK’s future energy needs, but not all. Onshore wind is cheapest of all, but a particularly difficult sell to local communities. Which leaves solar.

Cheap, increasingly efficient, silent. Best sited on roofs but a 2019 study calculated potential rooftop contribution as no more than 2.1% of existing 2016 electricity needs for the UK. So whilst rooftops are useful, they are not the solution we need.

Brownfield sites would help if it weren’t for the fact they are also in demand for housing and too small to be cost effective. If it comes down to a choice between a solar farm and housing for a brownfield site, which would be the priority?

The 6th Carbon Budget couldn’t be clearer in their modelling of the Balanced Net Zero Pathway:

“Solar generation increases from 10 TWh in 2019 to 60 TWh in 2035 and 85 TWh in 2050. On average, 3 GW per year will need to be installed to reach this level of solar generation”. 3GW requires around 6,000 hectares across the UK, that’s 10% of the total land area of Winchester District, every year of the next 30 years to 2050, most of this in the sunnier south and east of England.

Godsfield is 22 hectares. This appears to be just a drop in the ocean, but a very important one. We will need to find an awful lot more sites like this–and the sooner the better for our social well-being.