The statements made on green energy in the first full week of its existence show just how transformative the new Labour government plans to be.
There were no fewer than five significant announcements indicating “its willingness to take on the nimbys” as part of the fight against the climate crisis and to focus on green energy:
- the decision not to continue with the development of the Conservative policy to open a new coal mine in Cumbria;
- the lifting of the ban on onshore wind farms;
- an end to approving new fossil fuel drilling licences in the North Sea;
- Supreme Court decisions quashing approval for the proposed drilling for oil in Lincolnshire and Surrey;
- and – arguably the biggest of the lot – approval for three huge new solar farms in the east of England.
They could not have been better timed. In spite of BBC reports that electric vehicle sales are running out of steam, there is steady evidence to show that not only are they continuing to take market share but the infrastructure to support them is growing too. The need for renewable electricity is significant. A revolution is under way.
Green energy wind farms ruffle feathers
Lincolnshire is directly affected by these decisions. The county council has been vehemently opposed to any changes in the energy supply status quo and nothing has upset the leaders more than the idea that the county landscape should be changed by onshore wind farms.
Once the lifting of the ban was announced, Colin Davie, Executive Councillor for Economy & Place issued a statement claiming it represented “an attack on the countryside”. Davie has been a fierce opponent of this technology for many years. According to the Guardian, he is a trustee of the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), a group that dedicates itself to campaigning against onshore wind.
Another of the County Council’s major arguments against onshore wind is the visual damage to be caused to the countryside. It’s undeniable that turbines will be very noticeable in a largely flat landscape but once erected, it’s likely that people will quickly become used to them.
Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, the county was dotted with the windmills considered essential to draining land that is now some of the most fertile in the United Kingdom. Surviving examples, such as at Heckington, are celebrated as part of the county’s heritage. Though it’s a different environmental challenge, wind turbines are surely no less important.
The county council is also upset by National Grid plans to bring green energy generated by the major offshore wind farms in the North Sea. They want to bring it onto land and carry it for over 80 miles through the county to where it is most needed, via a string of pylons and high voltage cables. The damage to the look of the countryside by this project will dwarf that caused by onshore wind turbines.
Solar farms
The county council also claims that Lincolnshire food production – the county’s economic lifeblood – will be harmed by the solar farm plans.
Two of them are located on the county borders, at Gate Burton near Gainsborough and Mallard Pass on the Lincolnshire/Rutland border. Together they will generate around 800 megawatts of clean power which will be fed directly into the grid via existing substations. A third is planned for the Cambridgeshire/Suffolk border, amounting to a huge increase in solar energy capacity.
While it can’t be denied that some productive agricultural land is likely to be lost to these projects, the question is to what extent it damages food production. The UK hasn’t been self-sufficient in food for many years and currently imports around 40% to make up the shortfall. Would the land lost make much difference to that deficit?
There will be solutions to this challenge. Solar farms can be used as grazing land for livestock and more enterprising farmers will no doubt see an opportunity to get into vertical agriculture. But significantly, the claims made by politicians have been assessed ‒ and rejected ‒ by The Carbon Brief. More importantly, they have also been rejected by the President of the National Farmers Union himself.
The Brexit irony
It has to be said that the people in Lincolnshire squealing the loudest about this are in no position to complain. They were quite happy to cut ties with the European Union (EU) in 2016. Given the damage that Brexit has done to UK farming, being upset by the consequences of your own actions is deeply ironic; and from the farmers’ point of view, solar farms offer them another way to make money from their land if they can’t make it by growing crops.
The government is also changing the planning rules to make it much easier to install solar panels on rooftops. Why this hasn’t been done already is anybody’s guess but the prime suspects will undoubtedly be developers concerned at the cost. What isn’t in doubt is that these changes are long overdue.
Fossil fuel extraction
The bête noir for many environmental campaigners has always been the fossil fuel industries. There’s good news here too.
The government has decided not to issue any more drilling licences in the North Sea, beyond those already permitted, while two key Supreme Court decisions have shown fossil fuel companies have questions to answer.
Recently Central Bylines reported on a drilling proposal at Biscathorpe in the Lincolnshire Wolds. The court quashed this application, a decision that came hot on the heels of their ruling in the Surrey Weald case. Here, the court ruled that permission to drill should have accounted for “downstream emissions” produced by end-users.
Amanda Suddaby of the action group SOS Biscathorpe said: “We are delighted that 10 years of hard work and campaigning has finally paid off, and it was also encouraging to see that these very senior judges recognise and value the importance of public participation in addressing the enormous issue of climate crisis.”
Addressing concerns
A common complaint against the shift away from fossil fuels towards renewables is the unreliability factor. That does pose a short to medium-term problem but solutions already exist and more will be found. It does however seem that the threat of climate change and the damage it causes is now more widely accepted than ever before.
While there is still a way to go, countries are rushing to implement solutions. It’s heartening that at last we have a UK government that wants to join them.
