"Industry questions UK prime minister’s claim that move is essential to protect food security".
"Up to £20bn of investment in renewable energy is under threat from Liz Truss’s plans to effectively ban solar farms on agricultural land in England, the industry has warned.
The prime minister, who is a longstanding critic of solar panels installed on farmland, is expected to approve measures that would dramatically curb the rollout of the fast-growing technology, despite reservations from both the Treasury and the business department.
“If the plan were implemented it would threaten 30GW plus of projects currently being scoped for the second half of the decade — this could be over £20bn of capital investment into the UK energy sector,” said Chris Hewett, chief executive of the industry trade body Solar Energy UK.
Solar developers warned the technical change would amount to an effective block on large projects by banning the technology from 58 per cent of agricultural land and 41 per cent of England’s land mass."
Jim Pickard and Nathalie Thomas report for Financial Times October 10, 2022.
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