Statera’s plans to turn over 1,400 acres of arable land in the Dorset Area of Outstanding Beauty isn’t a green way forward – more brown and sticky. This is written from the perspective of someone who embraces solar energy and is emphatically not right wing.
The Plans
Though green energy providers Statera have yet to put the project on their website as of today, the project as reported in the BBC will involve:
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- Turning over 1,400 acres of arable land to a solar energy farm stretching from Chickerell to Shilvinghampton near Portesham
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- This will produce at peak 300 megawatts of energy
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- Additionally, it will be putting 400MWh of energy storage at a facility linked to it on the northern edge of Chickerell.
For those who understand the need for Dorset to get on and develop renewable energy – a very late move indeed – this might seem attractive. Admittedly just an opinion, but it doesn’t sit comfortably with me.
The Farmer’s Perspective
Contract farm manager Mark Moderski, who has farmed part of the proposed site for the last 30 years, attended one of the recent public consultations in the area affected. The Dorset Echo reported, “If the project goes ahead, he will lose 500 acres – about half of the land he farms. Mr Moderski said: “I have grown milling grade bread wheat, malt barley and oats for 30 years, all good quality for human consumption. Statera’s statement about this land being poor quality is absolute rubbish.””
Greenfield to Brownfield?
My personal worry is this: The land will likely be considered a brownfield site after it is approved. From a left/right political spectrum perspective, this is a Tory’s wet dream as they might be able to develop Chickerell as far as Shilvinghampton or even Portesham after were to be approved.
That could for example, allow another ‘Norchester’ development where Portesham is swallowed up by the Weymouth conurbation in the same way as Charminster is about to be by Dorchester.
This is far from being a green solution so much as a brown and sticky one!
Solutions Available Without Turning Green Brown
This is written by someone who has had 3.4 kilowatts of solar panels installed on my ex council house roof. In the last 12 months I have exported 3.5 megawatts of energy and used around 3.2MW from the grid. That makes my two-up, two-down terraced house a net exporter of solar energy.
I’m about to have decent double glazing installed that will reduce my dependence on the electricity grid even more as heating requirements will be minimised. This is in addition to having the place insulated to high heavens using government grants.
There are huge waiting lists for home solar energy installation in the UK thanks to the high energy prices forcing people to look for savings. But what if there was a government scheme to install solar energy on all roofs? Those with solar energy would export to those without and we certainly wouldn’t need tens of thousands of acres of prime arable land turned over to solar farms.
Though the government seems resistant to making poor people’s homes habitable and warm, there is another way to put money in fat capitalists’ sticky hands! Look at France’s new law – according to The Guardian newspaper, “All large car parks in France will be covered by solar panels under new legislation approved as part of president Emmanuel Macron’s renewable energy drive.
“Legislation approved by the French Senate this week requires existing and new car parks with space for at least 80 vehicles to be covered by solar panels.
“The owners of car parks with between 80 and 400 spaces have five years to comply with the measures, while operators of those with more than 400 will have just three years. At least half of the area of the larger sites must be covered by solar panels.
“The French government believes the measure could generate up to 11 gigawatts of power.”
Car Parks in Weymouth
There aren’t admittedly any car parks of that size in Portesham. There are in Weymouth – Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Asda, the Swannery, and Commercial Road car parks could generate an absolute pile of energy in the city centre where it’s most needed.
With the cover afforded by those solar roofs, people can hide from the weather fair and foul too. These units could also store the energy for those supermarkets to come off-grid and power many high street stores in central Weymouth.
Sometimes simple solutions can avoid environmental desecration. Isn’t it about time we looked at genuinely green energy solutions as opposed to those that are brown and sticky?
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