Plea for solar panels to be put on supermarket roofs rather than Norfolk's farmland
A Norfolk peer has urged the government to push for solar panels on the roofs of supermarkets and shops, rather than on the county’s “top-class” farmland.
The region has seen a spate of controversial applications for solar panels on farmland land, prompting former county MP Lord Bellingham to query the approach in a House of Lords discussion about the UK’s energy resilience.
Lord Bellingham (Image: Chris McAndrew / UK Parliament)
With concerns prime fertile land for food production will be lost to sun-powered arrays as part of the drive to net zero, the former Conservative MP for North West Norfolk asked: “Will the minister also look at priority for putting these solar panels on the roofs of shops, of supermarkets, warehouses?
“Quite often one goes onto an industrial estate and you see a lot of flat roofs, but no solar panels.
“Surely that’s a much better option than locating solar arrays on top-class agricultural land.”
A solar farm (Image: Mike Page)
But energy minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath said realising the government’s renewable energy goals would not see more than 1pc of the nation’s farmland used for solar panels.
Responding to Lord Bellingham, he said: “On his substantive point, totally agree.
“And these are the matters being discussed in government at the moment.
“On the use of farmland, he knows that if we were to achieve the whole of our solar ambition, we would not use more than 1pc of agricultural land.
“So we will continue to see projects of solar on agricultural land, but I want to see a development, much greater development in industrial premises and in domestic houses as well.”
It recently emerged housebuilders will be forced to fit solar panels to new properties by 2027 under government plans.
Kay Mason Billig, leader of Norfolk County Council (Image: Emily Goodwin)
Norfolk has seen a glut of recent applications for solar panels on farmland, which Kay Mason Billig, leader of the county council, dubbed a “creeping abuse” of the countryside.
The biggest of the farms would be in Gissing, where a site estimated at 5,000 acres is proposed.
There are also plans for East Pye, which will cover 2,700 acres around several villages near Long Stratton; the 4,000-acre High Grove solar farm, on five sites between Castle Acre and Dereham Droves, spanning 2,800 acres near Swaffham; and another Long Stratton scheme spanning roughly 2,500 acres.