Rooftop revolution could save our countryside and the climate

The nationwide campaign, which has had significant input from local CPRE Northamptonshire renewables specialist, Brian Skittrall, has been highlighting the need for new buildings to incorporate high levels of solar panels, and makes the case to the Government in CPRE’s response to the current consultation on Future Homes and Building Standards. CPRE’s opinion is that developers should play their part in renewables generation, and the first part of the consultation could require them to do so.

CPRE commissioned a study from the UCL Energy Institute to assess the amount of solar power that could be generated within the built environment. It found that a staggering 60-70 percent of the 2035 target for solar power, which equates to 40 to 50GW, could be achieved in the built environment and that by 2050 it could deliver a staggering 117GW, which exceeds the national solar target suggested by the Climate Change Committee.

Solar power is a key source of renewable energy that can bring us closer to net carbon zero quicker, using photovoltaic panels to convert the sun’s energy into electricity. CPRE, in the need to reconcile the need for a comprehensive renewable energy policy, acknowledge that a small amount of sensitively located solar farms are acceptable, but that massive solar farms, such as the huge 500MW site planned for locations around Mears Ashby, Castle Ashby, Grendon and Easton Maudit, should not be given planning consent, due to the destruction of countryside in Northamptonshire that will be necessary for their implementation.

CPRE Northamptonshire spokesman on renewables, Brian Skittrall commented,

“The vast acreage of farmland in Northamptonshire that has been swallowed up in recent years by houses and warehouses should have also made a significant contribution to renewable generation. People are angry that we are losing our countryside twice over.

“When one of our country’s greatest risks from the impact of climate change has been identified as our poor food security it is madness to be carpeting our productive farmland with solar panels when we should be preserving it for food production.”