Individual solar farms do not risk national food security, although they should not be built on the “best and most versatile land”, a farming leader has said.
National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw said “far more land” was being taken out of food production for environmental schemes than for solar, but added those projects were not necessarily wrong.
He warned there was a “huge number of competing demands for land use”, including nature habitat, food production, energy and measures to store carbon such as woodland.
In the wake of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband giving the green light to a number of large-scale solar farms, which has prompted concerns about the loss of agricultural land to renewable energy, Mr Bradshaw said: “We’ve got a clear position the best and most versatile land should be maintained for food production.
“And we also take a really keen interest where tenants are involved because it’s not going to be the tenant that benefits out of these solar agreements.
“What I do want to say is that an individual solar farm is not something which risks national food security.”
He told journalists at a parliamentary reception to mark Back British Farming Day: “We are taking far more land out of production for environmental schemes than we’re ever going to for solar.
“That’s not saying that it’s wrong for the environmental schemes, but I think we’ve got to make sure we’re balanced when we criticise where and how we’re taking land out of production.”
Mr Bradshaw said the promised land use framework from the Government would be important for prioritising how and where some of the different demands on land could be delivered.
“But we also believe that every farm is very well positioned to deliver small-scale solar, wind, battery storage, which can be used on farm but also go back into local communities,” he added.
Mr Bradshaw said the NFU was calling for permitted development rights for small-scale wind, and also warned that grid connectivity was a barrier for farmers wanting to install small-scale renewables.
And he said there would not be a need for huge solar farms, if every roof was used for solar.
The NFU president acknowledged that rooftop solar was slightly more expensive than ground-mounted panels, but said: “The Government have got to decide what they want our country to look like for the future.”
“Now our members are really well placed to deliver that localised energy right the way across the country,” he said.
Mr Bradshaw said farmers would follow policy signals from the Government on land use, saying: “If they prioritise energy over food production, we will deliver energy, if they prioritise food production, we’ll deliver food.
“If it’s a balance between food, environment, energy, we’re here to work with them and deliver that.”
