From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Robin Guenier

Robin tells me that the CPRE, formerly known as the Campaign to Protect Rural England, (presumably not woke or inclusive enough!) has been leafletting its members about its solar panel campaign:

Its answer is to plaster solar panels all over rooftops instead:

Rooftops can provide over half our solar energy targets, report shows

It is good to see that the CPRE does not want them littered all over the countryside, which they claim would take up an area larger than Greater London.

But why is it the CPRE’s business to be promoting solar panels at all?

Their claim about “cheapest electricity” does not stand up to scrutiny for a start. The next tranche of solar capacity due to come on stream in the next year or two have CfDs priced at £61.51/MWh:

However at the end of May, spot market prices were down to around £60/MWh.

And as we know, solar power is so intermittent that it has to be 100% backed up by dispatchable power, which greatly adds to the system costs. With a 70GW target by 2035, solar farms will also need battery storage if the grid is not to be overwhelmed at midday.

And where will all these solar panels be dumped when they reach the end of their life in ten or fifteen years time? That is surely something which should be of very real concern to a countryside charity, particularly given the highly toxic materials involved.

The CPRE’s “vision” is “a thriving, beautiful countryside for everyone”. They should stick to this vision, instead of getting involved in political campaigning, which I suspect most of its members disagree with anyway.