A Nuanced Policy on Solar Farms

Our soil has been damaged by decades of modern farming practices. Mono-culture, extensive use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, have damaged the structure and fertility of our soils. Soil simply can’t just keep on giving, indeed, in some areas, we have just 60 harvests left.

Well managed solar farms, however, can encourage greater botanical diversity. Wild flowers and hedgerows provide pollen for insects and bees, as well as nesting and food for birds, bats and small mammals.

Meanwhile the grass, unharvested, like a medieval fallow field, dies back into the soil, taking its sugars with it, which slowly rebuild new micro-organic and invertebrate life.

This is also the process that sequesters carbon back into our soils. Clean energy production, carbon sequestration, increased biodiversity and soil regeneration: a quadruple benefit in terms of mitigating our impending climate catastrophe!

Uttlesford District Council have the opportunity to pioneer a balanced policy:

1. Maximise the installation of solar panels on all commercial, industrial and public roofs. This should have been policy a decade ago.
2. When permission is sought for a solar farm, require soil samples to be taken. If the soil is indeed rich and fertile, refuse permission. If it has been denuded of biodiversity and structure, then a period of recovery as a solar farm may revive its fertility for future food production.
3. Insist on projects that enhance our hedgerows, wildflowers, insect, bird and animal life, to ensure that the environmental benefits of solar farms are maximised.
4. Give time limited planning permission, so that, once the soils have recovered, the land can be returned to improved agricultural use, with the solar panels relocated on impoverished soil elsewhere. This will require some research into the timescales required for soil regeneration. It is likely also to deter companies who are solely interested in profit.

In all these matters, let’s be guided by the science and avoid emotive language about ‘trashing the countryside’. We must take the long view and ask ourselves what is in the best interests of our children in terms of ensuring they have a survivable planet to live on. Our legacy at the moment is appalling. We must do everything we can to improve it.