Council officials in Cornwall are considering allocating 5,120 acres of land to place solar panels on over the next few years with a view to meeting targets in this respect. That actually equates to 0.6 % of Cornwall’s landmass.
Cornwall’s Lizard Point 008
(image credit: antidigital_da)
Interestingly, between the period 2004 to 2010 the county generated 93MW of renewable energy. The new proposals would see this figure increase to a huge 1,427 MW by 2030.
In addition Cornwall could see as many as 220 wind turbines put up by 2030.
The targets for renewable energy are being incorporated within Cornwall’s Local Plan that covers such things as targets for building new homes up to 2030.
This potential move has not gone down well with campaigners for the countryside in Cornwall who feel that to use prime farm land for the installation of solar panels would be irresponsible. They feel they would be better placed on brown field and industrial sites.
Campaigners have no problem with solar panels being installed on the top of large DIY chain’s roofs or at the likes of Newquay Airport but not on agricultural land which they feel should be used for what it was originally intended.
Mike Bruton, who is one of the co-founders of Cornwall Protect that are a campaign group stated: “Cornwall’s second biggest earner is tourism and people don’t want to come and see an industrial landscape”.
Martin Hyman who is Chief Executive of Regen SW who are an agency that campaigns for the generation of clean energy by means of the likes of solar panels commented that renewable energy accounts for 12% of the county’s current supply of electricity and that equates to 58,500 houses being powered in this way.
He felt that “ambitious” plans would be necessary if the UK were to achieve its target of generating 15% of the country’s energy by 2020 using the likes of solar panels. He was, broadly speaking, in support of the strategy.
