Tensions surrounding Cornwall’s green energy revolution have already prompted two Tory councillors to quit in protest at the number and size of solar farms being approved.
Councillor Steve Arthur, who resigned the Conservative whip last December, said there were at least 30 major solar schemes being proposed across the county, potentially covering 10 sq miles of farmland.
He said: “These massive solar farms are being built across Cornwall. But we don’t want to be covered top to tail in glass panels. It will reduce food production and drive out tourists.”
The most recent dispute emerged over a 200-acre solar farm at Canworthy Water near Launceston, as councillors in August overruled planning officers’ recommendations to reject the project.
However, many more solar farms are already in the pipeline, many of which are backed by foreign investors. This includes a 250-acre site located near the Cornish village of Indian Queens, which is supported by French energy giant EDF.
The Government has endorsed a number of recent renewables projects as it seeks to increase solar capacity by nearly five-fold by 2035.
Councillor Nick Craker, who is also chairman of the East Cornwall Planning Committee, said: “Allowing modest solar schemes to help farmers continue is all part of farm diversification.
“The concern and anger come when the big solar companies buy up large swathes of farms, sometimes multiple farms at a time, and plaster hectare after hectare in panels, often manufactured in China, and industrialise a whole community that was once productive farmland.”
Many farmers are also concerned. Nick Dymond, of Trevispian Vean Farm near Truro, said the solar surge was devastating Cornish farm communities and landscapes.
He said: “The big problem is that solar is driving up the cost of renting land. The typical rent for farmland is between £250 and £500 per acre depending partly on what crops you grow.
“But renting land for solar will generate £1,000 per acre year after year for maybe 25 years. For landowners that’s really tempting and it means many tenant farmers are being thrown off their land by landowners who want to replace crops with solar farms.”
Councillor Martyn Alvey, who oversees the environment and climate change group at Cornwall Council, added: “It is essential that we get the right balance between the use of land for agriculture and the use of land for solar farms.”
Solar Energy UK, the industry trade body, said Cornwall had the ideal combination of high light levels, access to grid connections and cheap farmland.
A spokesman said: “Ground-mounted solar is one of the cheapest forms of electricity generation and is readily deployable at scale. Such an increase [fivefold] in solar capacity would result in just 0.3pc of land within the UK being occupied by solar farms.”