Ofgem has calculated that 20 gigawatts of solar power generation is needed in southern England. Solar farms need up to 4,000 acres of land for each gigawatt, implying 60 million industrial solar panels need to be spread across an area equivalent to 40,000 football pitches.
The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England has warned that such a plan could mean many tenant farmers being thrown off their land, greater pressure on the green belt, and rural landscapes altered forever.
In a statement the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnz) said: “Currently a quarter of the UK’s renewable energy is generated in Scotland, far from where demand is highest.
“It means wind turbines are sometimes paid to turn off when supply is greater than demand because there isn’t capacity on the grid to transport the power.”
According to the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), constraint payments cost…
