New PM can give solar its chance to shine

Following reports that ministers intend to update planning guidance to prevent solar arrays from being built on most of England’s farmland, SSE director of solar and battery Richard Cave-Bigley pushes back on the idea that such installations would be detrimental for food security.

The arrival of a new Prime Minister always offers an interesting time for the energy sector. The affordability crisis will obviously continue to feature as an immediate priority, but the need for cheaper, cleaner, and more secure homegrown energy has never been more pressing.

So, a story, carried by The Guardian this week, that one of Liz Truss’s new ministers wants to potentially restrict solar farms from most of England’s farmland has certainly raised eyebrows in our sector.

According to reports, the new environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, is understood to oppose solar panels being placed on agricultural land, arguing that it impedes the growth agenda and food production.

This energy crisis has been caused by the spiralling costs of imported gas and the government’s immediate support packages will tackle the short-term symptoms. Our role here at SSE is to help provide longer-term solutions.

SSE’s investment plans are made up of shovel-ready projects that will see us invest £25 billion this decade across the UK and Ireland, working with communities and creating thousands of high-quality green jobs.

We have an exciting pipeline of solar and battery storage projects in delivery so we fully endorse the recent letter from Solar Energy UK to the Prime Minister outlining what the sector can do for net zero.

The letter explains how: “British solar and British farming have gone hand in hand since the beginning of the UK solar industry,” and that’s something I wholeheartedly agree with.

It was great to see that the Prime Minister is keen to encourage investment in the GB energy system and at SSE we will make a major contribution to this effort through our Net Zero Acceleration Programme.

The UK has enormous potential to become energy independent by fully developing our world-class renewable resources, upgrading our electricity infrastructure, and creating innovative new carbon capture, hydrogen, and pumped storage technologies – boosting UK energy security and helping ensure we are never in this position again.

Having taken on the role of leading the growth of SSE’s solar and battery storage business in the UK and Ireland, I’m clearly a big believer in the potential for these two technologies to make a major contribution in the energy transition – to deliver on all three fronts of: cost, security, and sustainability.

Solar and wind projects provide the most cost-effective power in the UK today (at a similar cost for both) and can be built out across the UK at scale. As such they are a vital part of the UK’s future energy mix. Diversity is essential for the UK, and these technologies, alongside battery storage, complement each other well.

What was interesting during the Conservative leadership debates was the way in which solar technology was, in some quarters, slightly pitched against food security. The implication being that the job of a farmer was to focus on growing food and not installing solar panels on their land.

But we, along with Solar Energy UK, are confident that the two needs of the hour can be met – i.e., the need to produce food as well as develop homegrown low carbon technology that will eventually help people facing large energy bills.

Currently, 0.08% of all UK land is taken up by solar farms. This would increase to just under 0.3% if we increased solar capacity to 70-90GW, as per governmental targets.

Earlier in the year, SSE announced details of its first solar project that will deliver 30MW of clean energy, alongside our first battery project at Salisbury. These form an important part of our ambitious programme to power change towards net zero, and we have much more in the pipeline.

There is a strong need to accelerate UK renewable energy generation, to guarantee energy security and improve energy affordability. I would argue that building solar projects is highly cost effective and that even during a cost-of-living crisis we still need to remember the long-term benefits of clean green technology.

SSE regards solar energy as complementary to other sources of renewable technology such as wind power and a key part of the net zero jigsaw.

We all look forward to engaging with the new look government on how our industry can play its part in delivering the investment required to accelerate our progress to net zero.

I’d like to end by echoing what Solar Energy UK say at the conclusion of their letter to Liz Truss: “The solar industry and our countryside communities stand ready to work together in support of this: promoting multi-functional land use, creating jobs, increasing biodiversity, reducing bills, and addressing climate change. Solar farms help achieve all these goals.” Amen to that.