It’s not actually very high quality land - grade 3B. While we have learned about food security, I think the bigger concern is energy security. We live in such difficult times.
“ Subgrade 3b – moderate quality agricultural land Land capable of producing moderate yields of a narrow range of crops, principally: cereals and grass. lower yields of a wider range of crops. high yields of grass which can be grazed or harvested over most of the year.”
@pansyface, no that is not the immediate neighbour. Exton Hall is nearly 1 mile away well shielded from the solar farm. I do not know if Exton Hall Estate own the land under consideration, I expect they do, but the developer behind the scheme is Econergy, an Israeli multinational company.
This is the neighbour’s house I was talking about, recently on the market for c. £1 million
The fields are arable by the look of it. Trouble is, we need energy security as well as food. We are going to need solar, but we are going to have to adjust our food consumption habits as well as energy usage.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
You also have to bear in mind the difficult times for farmers. Sadly because of the constant squeeze on prices, soaring energy costs, etc., it can be more profitable for a farmer to lease his land to an energy company for a solar farm than it is to produce food.
If the energy companies gave folk a decent feed in tarrifs, more folk would have them on their roof, but they're just greedy sods. We all know how much electricity prices have rocketed, but I read recently of a feed in tarriff of 3p per unit. I think I'm paying well over 10 times that when I buy electricity. So much for a "regulator" eh?
Bit difficult to know in the current climate ( weather and politics ) which comes first. If you have enough food, you automatically feel warmer. If you don't/can't find enough food, you need more heat. If you want solar power, you either fit every building with solar panels ( highly unlikely ) or you construct solar farms on available space. Wouldn't pretend to be an expert but many "fields" we can see are not always suitable for food production - I regularly see sheep grazing in Solar farms but that's only helpful for meat production.
They need a 50 acre field to install the solar panels, at £1,000. per acre per year, for 25 years, what would you do, Sit out on your tractor, plowing, fertilising, planting, more fertilising, harvesting then more that likely loose the crop to rain or drought at the end of it. Don't we need the green energy?
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
And don't forget the farmer then gets screwed by the supermarkets who in any case only want the oh so perfect crops, leaving farmer to plough back in the produce he's worked hard to grow.
We can't be surprised or complain when some choose an easier route to actually making ends meet.
And don't forget the farmer then gets screwed by the supermarkets who in any case only want the oh so perfect crops, leaving farmer to plough back in the produce he's worked hard to grow.
We can't be surprised or complain when some choose an easier route to actually making ends meet.
Waitrose take all crops which have been grown for them. Those not " oh so perfect " are NOT ploughed back into the ground, but are used in soups etc. Please don't trot out that old chestnut. It's just not true of ALL supermarkets. If you support farmers, choose wisely where you buy your veg, or maybe blame the customers who refuse to buy not " oh so perfect " fruit and veg.
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“ Subgrade 3b – moderate quality agricultural land
Land capable of producing moderate yields of a narrow range of crops, principally: cereals and grass. lower yields of a wider range of crops. high yields of grass which can be grazed or harvested over most of the year.”
@pansyface, no that is not the immediate neighbour. Exton Hall is nearly 1 mile away well shielded from the solar farm. I do not know if Exton Hall Estate own the land under consideration, I expect they do, but the developer behind the scheme is Econergy, an Israeli multinational company.
This is the neighbour’s house I was talking about, recently on the market for c. £1 million
https://media.onthemarket.com/properties/7299554/1125225002/document-0.pdf
We all know how much electricity prices have rocketed, but I read recently of a feed in tarriff of 3p per unit. I think I'm paying well over 10 times that when I buy electricity.
So much for a "regulator" eh?
If you want solar power, you either fit every building with solar panels ( highly unlikely ) or you construct solar farms on available space.
Wouldn't pretend to be an expert but many "fields" we can see are not always suitable for food production - I regularly see sheep grazing in Solar farms but that's only helpful for meat production.
Don't we need the green energy?
We can't be surprised or complain when some choose an easier route to actually making ends meet.
Please don't trot out that old chestnut.
It's just not true of ALL supermarkets.
If you support farmers, choose wisely where you buy your veg, or maybe blame the customers who refuse to buy not " oh so perfect " fruit and veg.