94 square miles of land 'could be lost to solar'

According to LAND (Lincolnshire Against Needless Destruction), net zero tzar Ed Miliband has “consistently claimed that less than one per cent of the county” is being used for solar.

However, based on the group’s own research of current proposals and DESNZ 2030 figures, LAND claim 25 per cent of all UK solar will be generated in Lincolnshire by 2030, which will take up ‘94 square miles of land – the equivalent to all of Liverpool, plus all of Manchester and then some’.

To strengthen their protest, LAND say they submitted a FOI to National Grid, asking ‘some very pertinent questions of the Government’s two most senior energy agencies’.

LAND says the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero replied with "partial answers and a suggestion that we did the rest of the research ourselves”.

So that is what they did.

“Based on current proposals and DESNZ 2030 figures we can reveal that an enormous 40 per cent of all the UK’s offshore wind generation will come ashore in Lincolnshire,” LAND revealed.

“And, using the same calculation, 25 per cent of all UK solar will be generated in Lincolnshire by 2030.

“For a long time campaigners have been saying that the rush to net zero and the Great Grid Upgrade disproportionately impacts Lincolnshire.

“It’s disproportionate in volume. It’s disproportionate in land use. It’s disproportionate in its impact on food security. It’s disproportionate per capita.

“DESNZ replied to the FOI saying it could not provide all of the information requested regarding all large-scale energy infrastructure projects assigned to the county or all land to be used because it could not spend the time and energy to discover whether it held the information in the first place”

Cat Makinson, chairman of LAND, said: "The reply showed that they don't log the Best and Most Versatile (BMV) status of land until the proposals have passed, and their claims of brownfield sites first and avoiding productive land are a sham if they are not accurately keeping track of the proposals - our request should have been easily answered as the information should have been at hand.

"Ordinary people (volunteers) shouldnt have to do DESNZ's homework for it, especially when Miliband is offering half a million for someone to run GB Energy - he would be better off getting a bunch of 'NIMBYs' who would do a thorough job for free."

A DESNZ spokesperson said: “Solar is at the heart of our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower. We have consented nearly 3GW of nationally significant solar projects since last July, but there are no hard targets for capacity in particular regions.

“As of September last year, solar farms covered around 0.1 per cent of the total land area of the UK, while bringing huge benefits for the British public and our energy security.

“Projects are subject to a rigorous planning process, in which the views and interests of the local community and impacts on the local environment, including any impact on amenities, landscapes and land use, are considered.”