UK solar power: exposing the biggest land grab since 1773

New campaign Stop Oversized Solar is marking its launch today by exposing troubling new figures on
planned solar power land-take.

Up to 5% of cropland is now at risk of solar development, threatening to take farmland out of use in some of the UK’s best food-producing regions for decades, but more likely for good.

Solar sites in the pipeline would cover around 655,000 acres – the equivalent of Derbyshire.

Stop Oversized Solar brings together a group of volunteers from across the UK committed to revealing
the real story behind Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects solar mega schemes.

News of this new solar pipeline emerges alongside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s
recent decision to change capacity targets in response to solar sector lobbying, making it easier for
olar mega schemes – set to take up thousands of acres of farmland each – to get grid connections.

The National Energy System Operator, which is responsible for energy system operations, has already
warned that connection queues are oversubscribed for solar.

The solar sector lobbying win could see warehouse, retail and industrial rooftop installations and other small-scale, local schemes crowded out of grid connections – even though they are promoted in
DESNZ’s new Solar Roadmap. It is also likely to trigger more solar power switch-offs in the summer.
NESO has already ordered solar sites to power down this year. Scheme owners are effectively paid to
stop generating electricity.

Professor Tony Day of the Stop Oversized Solar campaign said: “The government’s strategy on solar is wrong – and the solar data that we are exposing is disturbing. The pipeline is now massively over target, with an area of farmland the size of Derbyshire set to be covered in solar panels running into hundreds of millions. The more solar capacity we install, the more we depend on an unreliable source of energy.

“And we are highlighting that targets have been manipulated after lobbying from the highly
commercial solar sector, not based on need. We struggle to get even 10% average energy yields
on solar, so it’s much more logical to prioritise local solar schemes like commercial rooftop arrays or
car park canopies instead of grid-scale mega schemes on good farmland. Now we could see these
sensible schemes squeezed out while even more super-sized schemes get the grid connections.

“With hundreds of thousands of acres of UK farmland set to get consent nodded through for a
change of use, and many solar developers part of international groups or with international private
equity backing, this rural land grab is controversial and should set alarm bells ringing. We are
sleepwalking into a colossal countryside land take.”