Ed Miliband, the newly appointed Secretary of State for the UK’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DENSZ), and Solar Energy UK have announced a collaboration to combat misconceptions around solar’s threat to UK farming.

Misconceptions around solar energy have constituted an obstacle to the development of solar projects in the UK, with one of the most common arguments being that solar farms are a threat to national food security. Critics have argued that solar farms damage farmland and prevent farmers from carrying out their day-to-day practices, therefore affecting their business and, eventually, the national food supply.  

In response, Miliband told the Commons last week (18 July) that the Labour Government will proceed “not on the basis of myth and false information but on evidence”. Solar Energy UK has published the Solar Farm and Agricultural Land report. Supported by the NFU, the report aims to clarify concerns around a solar farm’s location, disturbance on the land it uses and any threat to the UK’s food supply.  

Chief executive of Solar Energy UK Chris Hewett explained: “Solar farms are keeping UK farmers in business while producing some of the cheapest power there has ever been. Without them [solar farms], energy bills would be even higher – for farms just as much as homes. Solar farms can provide reliable revenue, helping to keep UK farms profitable and securing domestic food supplies.” 

In the report, the NFU highlighted the "diversification of income” that solar farms bring to farmers, providing a balance between food security and climate ambitions.

Solar Energy UK said that the report is targeted at MPs, after misleading comments about solar were made in parliament. The report intends “to promote understanding, confidence and consistency in how planning authorities consider solar farm planning applications”.

Last week, the Labour government announced the relaunch of the UK’s Solar Taskforce as part of the party’s broader agenda to speed up the deployment of solar in the country. The taskforce, co-chaired by Hewett and Miliband, was created to foster collaboration between the government and the UK’s solar industry, with the collaboration to combat solar misinformation being one of its first moves.

After the general election, the UK's solar targets needed to be revisited, after Labour set its target to 50GW of solar capacity by 2030. The previous target set by the Conservatives was to reach 70GW by 2035. 

Since Miliband was appointed, three new solar farms have been commissioned with support from the NFU: the Lincolnshire-based Gate Burton and Mallard Pass solar farms as well as the 500MW solar and storage Sunnica Energy farm on the border of Suffolk and Cambridge.

With the UK’s current solar PV capacity at 17.5GW, according to Power Technology’s parent company GlobalData, continued cross-industry collaboration will contribute to achieving Labour’s solar ambitions.