Yesterday, Guido reported on how Liz’s plan to ban solar projects on farmland might cause a bit of a headache for Jacob Rees-Mogg… given his mother is a part-owner of 150 lovely acres of Somerset which is set to house a gigantic solar farm. A nice little money-spinner, if Liz allows spades to hit the ground…
Now Jacob has published an open letter in – of all places – the Guardian, assuring us he’s “no green energy sceptic“, and throwing his weight behind more low-cost solar projects:
“We are exploring options to support low-cost finance to help householders with the upfront costs of solar installation, permitted development rights to support deployment of more small-scale solar in commercial settings and designing performance standards to further encourage renewables, including solar PV, in new homes and buildings.”
The Guardian claims Mogg described Liz’s plan to ban solar development of farmland as “unConservative“. It would also be pretty inconvenient for his mother…
During the leadership election Liz Truss consistently got loud rounds of applause from Tory members over her plan to ban solar projects on farmland, which she condemned as “a blight on the landscape” and “depressing”. On Monday, No. 10’s spokesman reiterated this policy to the media:
“In September [Truss] said she doesn’t think we should be putting solar panels on productive agricultural land, as well as the energy security issue we face a food security issue.”
Details of the new policy are scarce, though it’s believed DEFRA Secretary Ranil Jayawardena wants to widen the definition of “best and most versatile” land to prohibit solar farms from being built.
At this point in the story we head over to Bristol, where just 2.6 miles away from Jacob Rees-Mogg’s house a 58-hectare solar farm development is being proposed on land in Bishop Sutton. It’ll be a nice little money-spinner for those owning the land.
Jacob Rees-Mogg’s own council – Bath and North East Somerset – acknowledge in a document that the development will expend “agricultural land”, “currently used for grazing”. So clearly Jacob would be unlikely to support the plans…
The biggest problem for Jacob Rees-Mogg? Much of the planned land for the development is owned by none other than his mother, Gillian Rees-Mogg…
Guido highlighted back in January that the government’s tapering of subsidies for renenwables could potentially see the death of subsidy junkies in five years. Solar looks to be the first to take the plunge…
The Guardian reports that the solar panels industry has collapsed in the wake of subsidy withdrawal. In fact, household solar power capacity installed in the past two months has undergone a 75% decrease, a lot more than was expected following the 65% cut in government incentives for householders to install panels. This is the renewable industry’s problem: It needs shed-loads of taxpayer cash to survive, and when the subsidies are taken away it goes to the wall…
The Trillion Fund, an organisation that aims to “open up opportunities to profit from clean energy” has released a video aiming to convince the public to keep the Feed-in tariffs that force the taxpayer to subsidise solar panels. It’s terrible…
“In 2014, Britain led solar expansion in Europe. Now the government want to slash the support that made that possible – Feed-in tariffs or ‘FITs’. 27,000 jobs, countless community projects, and our place in the solar technology race are at stake.”
If that doesn’t convince Rudd to stick to her guns, nothing will…
Professional subsidy-spongers SunEdison have announced that they are pulling out of the UK, citing Amber Rudd’s plans to stop propping up small scale solar projects. SunEdison describe themselves as the “largest global energy renewable development company” and claim to have invested £400 million in the UK. They operate by offering to install solar panels on residential rooftops for free, then siphoning off the tax payer funded subsidies.
SunEdison tempt customers with the slogan: “Sunlight is free. Imagine if going solar were, too.” Turns out it’s not…
Listeners to the Today programme this morning were treated to the chair of the “Carbon Tracker Initiative” Jeremy Leggett “slamming the meagre investment in renewable energy being made by energy companies. Apparently if they don’t do more, there will be starvation, droughts, floods and other “horrors”…
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“They’re [the big oil companies] setting up of a study to find out whether you know, we can have 50% renewable in the electricity mix by 2050. Well, you know, that’s completely inadequate. That will give us a world of four degree Celsius, way above the danger ceiling of two degree Celsius for global warming. A world in which you know, we’d be finding it difficult to feed ourselves or have enough drinking water amid all the droughts and floods and wildfires and all the other horrors.”
Oddly, what James Naughtie failed to mention is that Jeremy Leggett is the founder and non-executive chairman of Solarcentury, one of the UK’s largest solar companies. Some sunlight should have been shone on his vested interest…
