Farmers and small businesses in Cornwall are worried that solar panels are replacing agriculture in the county, with more than 27,000 panels already and the number set to increase.
Cornwall has more solar panels than anywhere else in the UK and that number could rise with even more planned under Ed Miliband’s green energy rollout.
Whilst climate campaigners have welcomed the spread of solar energy, residents and councillors are growing angrier as they claim the landscape is being ruined by the large glass panels.
A new report from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero confirmed the county has more solar production capacity than any other part of the country.
The report also stated that south western counties, Wiltshire and Somerset, were second and third in terms of capacity and generation.
Two Conservative councillors have already quit in protest at the number and size of solar farms being approved.
Cllr Steve Arthur, who resigned the Conservative whip last December, told The Telegraph there were at least 30 major solar schemes being proposed across the county, potentially covering 10 square miles of farmland.
He said: ‘These massive solar farms are being built across Cornwall. But we don’t want to be covered top to tail in glass panels. It will reduce food production and drive out tourists.’
In August, plans for a 200-acre solar farm at Canworthy Water near Launceston, were rejected in spite of recommendations from the planning officers
Despite this, more solar farms could be on the horizon, including a 250-acre site near the Cornish village of Indian Queens, which is supported by French energy giant EDF.
Councillor Nick Craker, who is also chairman of the East Cornwall Planning Committee, said: ‘The concern and anger come when the big solar companies buy up large swathes of farms, sometimes multiple farms at a time, and plaster hectare after hectare in panels, often manufactured in China, and industrialise a whole community that was once productive farmland.’
Many farmers are also concerned. Nick Dymond, of Trevispian Vean Farm near Truro, said that many farmers are being tempted by the offer to rent their land for solar.
He said: ‘The big problem is that solar is driving up the cost of renting land. The typical rent for farmland is between £250 and £500 per acre depending partly on what crops you grow.
‘But renting land for solar will generate £1,000 per acre year after year for maybe 25 years. For landowners that’s really tempting and it means many tenant farmers are being thrown off their land by landowners who want to replace crops with solar farms.’
Councillor Martyn Alvey, who oversees the environment and climate change group at Cornwall Council, said getting the right balance between the use of land for agriculture and the use of land for solar farms is essential.
Solar Energy UK, the industry trade body, said Cornwall had the ideal combination of high light levels, access to grid connections and cheap farmland.
The company said ground-mounted solar is one of the cheapest forms of energy and can be put in place quickly at a large scale.
Even if the current expansion is increased fivefold, just 0.3% of land in the UK would be occupied by solar farms, the company say.