Dear Graham,
Thank you for your letter of 8 October to the Secretary of State regarding solar farms proposed in your constituency. I am responding as this matter falls under my Ministerial portfolio.
Thank you for your expression of support for solar power. You are right to point out that solar power is cheap, deployable at scale, and popular. I agree with you that it is vital that we maintain this high level of public support as we pursue our clean power mission. All solar projects are subject to a rigorous planning process, in which the views and interests of local communities are considered. This includes any impact on land use, food production, and the natural environment.
Planning guidance sets out how decision makers should consider the cumulative impact of projects, where several are proposed in the same area. Planning guidance also makes clear that, wherever possible, developers should utilise brownfield, industrial, contaminated, or previously developed land. Where the development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, lower-quality land should be preferred to higher quality land. Even in the most ambitious scenarios, solar would occupy only up to 0.4% of UK land in 2030.
Where communities host clean energy infrastructure, we believe that they should benefit from it directly. We recently published a working paper on community benefits for solar, which proposed making it mandatory for developers to provide community benefit funds. We are currently analysing responses to the working paper and will issue a response in due course. In the meantime, Solar Energy UK, the main trade body for the solar sector, will publish later this year a voluntary community benefits protocol and guidance for solar.
We are also taking steps to ensure that new energy infrastructure is spread effectively across the country. I know you are supportive of the work the National Energy System Operator is doing to produce a Strategic Spatial Energy Plan which will ensure we have a much more holistically planned system than at present. It will assess and identify the optimal locations, quantities and types of infrastructure required to meet future energy demand. It is due for publication in 2026.
Thank you for your invitation to visit solar farms in Beverley and Holderness. Regrettably, due to diary pressures, I am unable to accept.
Thank you again for writing and for your continued support of (most!) of our clean power mission.
Best wishes, MIchael Shanks MP Minister of State for Energy
