Lincolnshire energy strategy faces questions after response by Ed Milliband

Who says? According to No Pylons Lincolnshire these guidlines have come straight from Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The campaign group against National Grid’s plans for an 87-mile pylons route from Grimsby to Walpole have issued their response to a reply from Mr Milliband to a letter forwarded to him by Victoria Atkins MP on behalf of No Pylons Lincolnshire founder member Cat Makinson,

In the reply, which has been shared with Lincoldshire World, Mr Milliband apologies for the two-month delay in responding but stresses ‘Rolling out renewable power and building the electricity grid we need is the backbone of energy security for our country.’

In addition to outlining the Government guidance on planning a route through the countryside, he also states ‘the Government continues to believe the deployment of solar farms does not pose a threat to food security’.

Remarks which have left the No Pylons Lincolnshire group completely mistified.

“None of the above applies to huge swathes of rural Lincolnshire,” commented Andrew Malkin, of the No Pylons Lincolnshire group.

"None of it applies to most of the area identified by National Grid for an 87-mile pylons route from Grimsby to Walpole.

"None of it applies to some of the areas currently under investigation for huge, new substations.

"The land currently being drilled as part of a survey for a possible location for a 35 to 40-acre substation at Weston Marsh, for example, is not brownfield, has not been used for industry, is certainly not contaminated, has not been developed and is grade 1 arable land - the best in the country.

“So, the question has to be asked: What’s National Grid playing at and why is Ofgem letting them get away with it?

“Mr Miliband’s reply to a letter forwarded to him by Victoria Atkins MP, on behalf of No Pylons Lincolnshire founder member Cat Makinson, is a major cause for furrowed brows.

“In it he says the current network was built in the middle of the last century and an upgrade cannot be delayed. But the current proposals are to upgrade using the same 100-year-old technology - pylons; not better, but bigger, and even uglier.

“Mr Miliband claims a typical weather year can deliver power from ‘clean sources’ to meet Great Britain’s total energy needs, and 95 per cent of it can be generated here.”

Cat Makinson responded: “There is no way we can produce 95 percent of our own energy from wind and solar. Mr Milliband’s statement allows for just over 18 days a year when the skies are grey and the wind doesn’t blow, or blows too hard, just like it has for the past couple of weeks; and we haven’t factored in solar generating zero at night.

“As for selling overgeneration - when weather conditions here produce more than we can use, who is going to want to buy our spare when the rest of Europe will also be generating their own from wind and solar? None of it stacks up. There are too many eggs in the solar basket”

No Pylons Lincolnshire also said the believe the statement expects “delivering a clean power system with these characteristics will make Great Britain a net exporter of electricity” is confirmation that “prime arable land, vital for the nation’s food security, could be sacrificed to meet a desire to sell overgeneration to foreign buyers”.

Peter Philips, who is also a member of No Pylons Lincolnshire, said: “The maths behind this are riddled with uncertainty.

"Mr Miliband’s reply contains no evidence whatsoever. We may become a net exporter of negatively-priced electricity if every other northern European country has similar installations.

“Mr Miliband has again made the claim that one per cent of agricultural land will be taken up by solar. The percentage will be much higher for counties disproportionately impacted, such as Lincolnshire. And it is much higher than one percent when all other net zero initiatives are factored in.

“Where the impact is on productive arable land we need to know where the increased food imports are to come from and the effect on price and quality.

*The Grimsby to Walpole project has opened up floodgates for other green energy projects, such as solar developments using new substations to connect to the grid. No Pylons Lincolnshire supports clean energy.

"We support small-scale, locally-serving solar projects but object to needless destruction of our landscape and the loss of the UK’s prime agricultural land when better, greener methods of energy production and transmission are being developed and utilised around the globe.”

• Lincolnsire World has invited a comment from Mr Milliband on the reaction to his letter and has also contacted National Grid for a comment.