Farmers to lose solar subsidies

Farmer will no longer receive subsidies for having solar farms on their land, under new rules put forward by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The plans aim to ensure that more agricultural land is dedicated to growing crops and food by making it less financially attractive for farmers to install solar panels.

Farmers will lose their right to claim subsidies for fields filled with solar panels under the plans, which Defra claims, to “will help rural communities who do not want their countryside blighted by solar farms”.

The change will come into effect from January 2015 and means that farmers who choose to use fields for solar panels will not be eligible for any farm subsidy payments available through the Common Agricultural Policy for that land.

Environment secretary, Elizabeth Truss, said: “English farmland is some of the best in the world and I want to see it dedicated to growing quality food and crops.

“I do not want to see its productive potential wasted and its appearance blighted by solar farms.

“Farming is what our farms are for and it is what keeps our landscape beautiful.

“I am committed to food production in this country and it makes my heart sink to see row upon row of solar panels where once there was a field of wheat or grassland for livestock to graze.”

She added that solar panels are “best placed on the 250,000 hectares” of south facing commercial and industrial rooftops.

The changes to the subsidy regime are stated to potentially save taxpayers up to £2 million per year.

The move follows other decisions by the government to end support for solar farms on agricultural land, including ending subsidies for large scale solar (above 5MW) farms from 1 April 2015.