23 October 2022
Can you guess which of our local MPs recently voted against a motion that would have guaranteed parliamentary time for a bill to ban fracking?
Yes, that's right, all of them! [1]:
Martin Vickers - Cleethorpes
Andrew Percy - Brigg and Goole
Holly Mumby-Croft - Scunthorpe
In. A. Climate. Emergency.
Meanwhile, ministers are planning to ban solar farms from most of England’s farmland, the Guardian recently revealed [2]:
"The new environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, is understood to oppose solar panels being placed on agricultural land, arguing that it impedes his programme of growth and boosting food production. To this end, say government sources, he has asked his officials to redefine “best and most versatile” land (BMV), which is earmarked for farming, to include the middling-to-low category 3b.
Land is graded from 1 to 5, and currently BMV includes grades 1 to 3a.
Planning guidance says that development on BMV land should be avoided, although planning authorities may take other considerations into account. Currently, most solar farms are built on and planned for 3b land, so this move would scupper most new developments of the renewable energy source.
Extending BMV to grade 3b would ban solar from about 41% of the land area of England, or about 58% of agricultural land. Much of grade 4 and 5 land is in upland areas that are unsuitable for solar developments."
What would this mean for North Lincolnshire?
Checking a map of agricultural land grades in North Lincolnshire from Natural England [3] indicates that solar projects would actually be banned from over 99% of non-urban land in North Lincolnshire, leaving just grade 4 land mainly on the coversands around Scunthorpe (light yellow in the following map derived from the Natural England map):
Agricultural Land Grades in North Lincolnshire
copyright Natural England published under the Open Government Licence
Much of the grade 4 land is SSSI designated which (one would hope) would be unlikely to gain planning consent. Given the chances of a landowner wanting to host a solar farm on any land is quite low, this would make it virtually impossible for North Lincolnshire to host it's fair share of solar developments to meet Net Zero targets.
This, despite solar PV being:
- The cheapest source of electricity production [4].
- The quickest to deploy (linked to the above low capital costs).
- No threat to agriculture in UK: to meet net zero 2050 plans, solar is projected to take up just 0.3% of UK land area, roughly half that of golf courses [4].
- A valuable alternative source of income for farmers [5].
- Possible to combine with food production: “Agrivoltaics can mean...pollinator habitat and native vegetation providing ecosystem services. It can also mean...crops...or sheep-grazing underneath the panels" [5].
The anti-solar policy appeared to be the brainchild of Liz Truss and who knows what the new prime minister will be for or against in this respect? In all likelyhood they don't even know themselves.
Meanwhile, carbon emissions are continuing unabated.
I have asked the Council if North Lincolnshire's CO2 emissions are on a target pathway to net zero at 2050. To date, I have had no reply.
Watch this space - more to follow.
Notes:
1. https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/1372#noes
3. http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/category/5954148537204736
4. https://www.carbonbrief.org/solar-is-now-cheapest-electricity-in-history-confirms-iea/
5. https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-is-solar-power-a-threat-to-uk-farmland/
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