Across England there has been a backlash against renewable energy initiatives, supported by countryside groups who feel the incredible uptake of renewable energies has resulted in the ‘eyesores’ of wind turbines and solar panelling impinging on people’s enjoyment of rural landscapes.

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However, the hotly contended new technologies are generating much needed income and providing welcome business diversification for farmers and other rural residents, amongst whom they have proven so popular that the government is panicking over agreed subsidies paid for renewable energy generation.

Exponents of renewables argue that their appearance is as unobtrusive as possible, that they are just the latest addition to what has always been a working landscape and that they present an effective means of decentralising energy production and moving away from intensely polluting energies. Nevertheless, some rural bodies have maintained that the installations are ‘blights on the landscape’ and mounted campaigns to see their expansion curtailed.

CPRE condemns ’industrialisation of the countryside’

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England has this week spoken out against “The industrialisation of the countryside;” the group claims the increasing uptake of renewables, meaning more solar panels are appearing in farmers’ fields, is despoiling Britain’s rural landscape.

Tom Leveridge, senior energy campaigner for the CPRE said on BBC radio yesterday that “[Solar panels] are affecting the landscape and impacting on the visual amenity; these installations affect the diversity and the beauty of the countryside. In the worst case scenario there can be large industrial structures on the sides of hills, for example, potentially impacting on designated areas which people value for their beauty.”

The campaigner said his organisation would like to see communities mapping their surrounding countryside and developing a system for demarking areas suitable for renewable projects. Acknowledging that there is a desperate need for more non-polluting green energies, Mr Leveridge said “We think solar will play a role, but landscape will be an important limiting factor.” He maintained that the CPRE would like to see solar panels confined largely to “brown-field sites, industrial areas or on top of roofs.”

Nevertheless, the NFU has estimated that by the end of the summer a third of UK farmers will be involved in producing energy. Last week, despite the maligned aspects of the government’s bill, the Department for Energy and Climate Change did announce an increase from 3.2 to 4.5 pence per kilowatt hour for export tariffs from solar installations.

Although overall feed-in tariffs are being severely cut, the union has said that renewables still represent a solid investment option for farmers; capital costs for renewable have fallen by 50 per cent in the past two years and farmers stand to see returns of 10 per cent per year from solar projects.

NFU renewables advisor Jonathan Scurlock said, “In many cases Solar PVs prove quite popular with local communities; where the modules can be screened, perhaps when coupled with hedgerow restoration, we can see multiple advantages here, with dual use of the land. Certainly we would not advocate placing the modules on hillside.”

He said the panels are mostly placed on less productive land, as ground rents paid by solar developers have to compete with money to be gained by growing crops. He also expounded on the potential for dual land use from solar projects; Mr Scurlock said fields used for solar farming can also be occupied by free range chickens or sheep and present a good opportunity for inclusion in regenerative management and stewardship schemes.  

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