17 August 2015

Manton Solar Farm

 

Plans to build North Lincolnshire's second solar energy park on farmland near Kirton in Lindsey have been made public. The developer at Martifer Solar UK has earmarked Manor Farm at Manton to install thousands of photovoltaic panels.

If given planning approval, the Manton park would deliver 27 megawatts of renewable energy – enough to supply around 8,100 households a year. It is expected that the solar farm will produce power for 25 years.

This would be a fantastic addition to North Lincolnshire and would create a large amount of secure jobs in our region. Not only will it provide clean energy to over 8,000 homes but it will be a big step in the right direction to reducing carbon emissions and tackling climate change.

Martin Dwyer (NLGP Elections Agent) has written a letter to North Lincs Council on behalf of NLGP to strongly support the proposal. You can view the letter HERE.

 

Update 19th November 2015

 

Laura Atkin (Coordinator for NLGP) spoke at the North Lincolnshire Council Planning Committee meeting on Wednesday 18th November 2015 to support the application. Unfortunately, the Conservatives refused planning permission due to aesthetics. The Labour Councillors all voted in favour of granting permission. Below is the speech Laura made to the Committee.

 

Speech to NLC Planning Committee

 

Thank you Mr Chairman for this opportunity to address Council members and the Planning Committee. I’m Laura Atkin, representing North Lincolnshire Green Party and I speak in support of the application to construct a solar array at Manton Farm.

Climate science has been sending us a clear message and warning for years now, that human caused emissions from agriculture, deforestation and the energy industry need to be brought close to zero within just as few decades, to lessen the effects of climate change which poses an existential threat to future humanity.

Not many people really comprehend the sheer scale of what needs to happen to completely abolish CO2 emissions from energy production.

Firstly, ALL electricity production must come ONLY from kosher renewables, namely; wind, wave, solar, tidal, hydro and geothermal, instead of from gas or coal. UK demand for electricity is approximately 42GW average power, that’s 42,000MW! In the future, additional power needs to be available for improves and subsidised clean public transport; trains, trams and busses (to offer a viable alternative to private car use), electric cars, heat pumps for heating instead of burning gas, grid backup systems and assisting in the synthesis of renewable hydrocarbon fuels for planes, ships and those vehicles which can’t be run on electricity.

In order to replace the function of gas and oil, which is actually the really difficult problem, electricity demand will be 100GW or more! This is going to entail more than putting up a few wind turbines and solar panels, then saying “we can stop now, we’ve done our bit!”

Of the kosher renewables I mentioned, only wind and solar have the sheer capacity to get anywhere near that 100+GW. Let’s imagine that about a third comes each from onshore wind, offshore wind and from PV solar, it would require solar panels covering 1% of the whole UK, but still amounts to just 2.5% of total arable land, which needn’t be used in any case, so solar panels are not a threat to farming, we’re not going to be starved out by them!

There would also have to be about 60,000 2MW-rated onshore wind turbines, the sort seen hereabouts, covering 7,500 square miles of our land, 7.5% of the whole UK, unless you’d rather have more than 30 Hinkley C projects instead? These are the stark choices!

Chairman, in the light of all I have said, I have to remark on the ugly fact that the current Government’s actions in blocking wind farms, curtailing feed in tariffs for renewables, even ceasing to seek to improve home insulation and energy saving schemes (proven to be highly cost-effective at reducing emissions and essentially low hanging fruit), all seem bizarrely inappropriate and mystifying, wantonly in contempt of reason, science and our future collective interest, and is to be utterly deplored.

I earnestly hope that the Planning Committee will appreciate the important contribution that the Manton Farm proposal, and many like it, will make towards a better, cleaner, safer future for us all and our descendants.

Thank you.

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