Opinions on Solar Farms: Is the UK For or Against?

Want to know the UK’s opinions on solar farms? Here’s a look at the political and public views that might just surprise you.

Although they haven’t been subject to quite as much debate as wind farms over the years, solar farms are still a hot topic in the renewables space.

For a start, they repeatedly popped up as a subject in the 2022 Conservative leadership race. Both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss criticised the use of solar on agricultural land, dismissing them as a blight on the landscape.

But do these Conservative politicians truly represent the broader opinions on solar farms in the UK? Are the public truly as resistant to solar power as these political figures make out?

Well, that’s what I’m here to discuss.

Whether you’re considering a solar farm or are just curious about renewables, this guide covers both political and public options and how they compare.

Now, let’s get started.

Political Opinions on Solar Farms

Political opinions on solar farms tend to be the most complex and divided, largely shaped by each party’s broader goals.

While both the Labour and Conservative parties have pledged a commitment to net-zero targets, their actions don’t always align with their promises.

To give you a clear overview of political opinions on solar farms, I’ll next run through public statements from party leaders and MPs. This deep dive should provide a broader look at the current state of affairs.

You’ll begin to see that opinions on solar power aren’t necessarily split according to a party’s political beliefs. The actions of some political figures happen to be completely different from what their party’s manifesto states.

So, let’s dig a little deeper into exactly what the UK’s two main political parties think about solar power:

Conservative

Conservative opinions on solar farms can be tricky to navigate.

The views of the average Conservative voter don’t necessarily align with Rishi Sunak’s tough stance on onshore wind and solar panels on agricultural land. As of 2023, Rishi Sunak has quite heavily u-turned on net-zero policies, delaying the go-ahead for a major solar farm and refusing to commit to HS2.

According to a solar energy boss interviewed by LabourList, the company is:

Looking to raise billions of pounds of investment into the UK. Because of Sunak’s speech, I’m now having to fly across Europe to persuade investors not to divert the money to projects in the EU, because it now looks like a more stable and reliable market.

Judging by this quote alone, without any mass support from the government on solar, getting large investments for commercial-scale farms is going to be incredibly difficult.

The Conservative leadership race and its impact on solar farms

In the Conservative leadership race in 2022, Truss and Sunak both came down quite hard on solar energy. Their comments were designed to attract votes from the controversial Not in My Backyard Crowd (NIMBYs).

However, this short-sighted approach didn’t seem to account for the fact that 73 per cent of Conservative voters actually support solar farms.

This opposition to solar is more than just a political manoeuvre – it could worsen the cost-of-living crisis.

This idea is supported by Andy Meyer (from the Institute of Economic Affairs) who states that:

Both leadership candidates, by making a fetish of the Green Belt and hysterical opposition to local development, are likely to make the cost-of-living crisis worse.

How does this connect to energy costs? Simply put, by rejecting solar power in favour of continued reliance on foreign gas, the UK risks driving up energy prices. With energy costs tied to the price of gas, this reluctance to embrace renewables could mean higher bills for consumers.

What else has Rishi Sunak said about solar panels?

Aside from his comments during the Conservative leadership race, Sunak has also planned to restrict the installation of solar panels on British farmland.

He mentioned this as recently as October 2023 and it’s set to have a huge impact on landowners wanting to make extra income from their land.

This came after Liz Truss attempted to block solar from most of England’s farmland during her short stint as Prime Minister.

Lydia Collas (a senior policy analyst at Green Alliance) has called this approach ‘gravely short-sighted’. And she’s right, as increasing our use of solar energy would reduce the country’s reliance on polluting fossil fuels.

When you pair this with Matt Hancock’s comments about solar farms often being proposed for ‘high-grade agricultural land’, it’s easy to see why progress is slow.

In fact, planning permission for 23 solar farms was refused across the UK between January 2021 and July 2022. These projects could have powered upwards of 147,000 homes a year, making it a significant missed opportunity.

The same research from Turley also suggests that only four projects were denied planning from 2017 to 2020 combined.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. In 2021, 20 solar farms were refused permission while 254 were approved. So, it’s worth looking on the bright side.

Labour

Labour is largely supportive of solar farms and has denounced several of the recent Conservative comments on the matter. This includes the plans that Liz Truss laid out during the leadership race.

The party sees solar as a central pillar to boost the UK’s use of clean energy and is hoping to reform the Contracts for Difference scheme to encourage more solar projects.

As well as reforming the Contracts for Difference scheme, Keir Starmer is hoping to:

Back carbon capture, let’s invest in hydrogen, nuclear, tidal energy, double onshore wind, treble solar power, quadruple offshore wind and insulate 19 million homes.

Labour also hopes to significantly reduce the planning time for renewable energy projects by addressing planning restrictions.

To further boost solar capacity by 2030, Shadow Energy Minister Alan Whitehead plans to work closely with distribution operators to speed up Grid investment.

Overall, Labour is far more supportive of solar power than the Conservative Party.

Public Opinions on Solar Farms

Despite the Conservative party being cold towards solar energy, their voter base is generally supportive of large-scale solar.

58 per cent of people polled in a recent survey supported increased capacity for solar and onshore wind to reduce energy bills.

Looking more broadly, over 80 per cent of the general public would happily support ground-mounted solar technology being hosted in their local area. Only 3 per cent strongly opposed.

This all but dismisses the claims from Sunak and Truss that solar farms are overwhelmingly unpopular.

Chris Hewitt from the Trade Association of Solar Energy UK sums up the results well:

These results are another ringing endorsement of the UK’s fast-growing solar power sector. Whether slashing home energy bills, powering warehouses or mounted on land managed for sheep and wildlife, it is no wonder solar power has won the backing of British people. These figures also show how out of touch some MPs are with the public on solar farms. There are no more popular and low-cost ways to generate power than solar and wind.

That’s not to say that there won’t always be some resistance from the UK public. After all, both solar panels and wind turbines require a fair amount of space.

However, there’s little widespread negativity towards them from any particular subsection of the population.

So, the ‘Not In My Backyard’ resistance is hugely overstated.

Final Thoughts

Public support for solar should eventually push the government to take broader action. However, Sunak’s resistance to renewable energy is making widespread change challenging.

The UK simply won’t be able to meet its net-zero targets with its current approach. To do so would require significant changes in climate policy. Part of this comes from government support, but it’s also down to planning permission guidelines. If guidelines remain as strict as they are, we won’t be able to build enough projects to meet climate targets.

If you’re interested in getting a solar project on your land (or want to maximise returns from an existing one), get in touch. The Lumify Energy Team can guide you through the process of running a successful, long-term project.

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