From Climate Scepticism

By Mark Hodgson

Going through the motions.

Professor Gordon Hughes recently posted an interesting article regarding the economics and utility of solar farms at higher latitudes. It’s well worth a read, but for me the key sentence was this:

Even on assumptions that are either extremely optimistic (based on actual evidence rather than fantasy forecasts) or inconsistent with current economic conditions, developing solar plants in locations north of 53°N makes no sense.

Why, then, is there a mad rush to build solar developments in Scotland? And why is there a sudden rush to build them in Cumbria? I live at well north of 54°N, and there are two massive projects planned a short distance from where I reside. The first (reported on here and here) is between Egremont and Dent Fell on the edge of the Lake District National Park (my estimate is that it’s within two miles of the National Park boundary), and (quite apart from the latitude issue) is in a completely inappropriate location. At least, that’s what I think, and so do many people who live closer to the site than I do. At 200 acres, it’s the size (depending on how one measures these things) of 125 football pitches. It’s to be called (for no good reason, so far as I can see) Cobra Castle Solar Farm, and the developer’s website contains a number of what I regard as questionable statements:

This site has been carefully selected to deliver clean, renewable energy while supporting biodiversity, ecology and the local community.

“Clean” and “renewable” is a matter of opinion. I don’t know where the solar panels will come from, but given that the IEA reckons that more than 80% of such products are made in China, there has to be a good chance that some if not all of the Cobra Castle solar panels will be manufactured there – using electricity generated by coal, possibly using Uighur slave labour, and being transported halfway round the world in diesel-fuelled ships. That’s before we discuss the mining of the materials utilised in their manufacture.

The proposals are temporary…

I accept that forty years (the proposed life of the plant) is less than permanent, but it will span the active years of someone in their late teens when it’s built, so it’s not exactly short-term.

During this time, the land will maintain its greenfield classification…

What does that mean? Is that under planning legislation? It will certainly be converted to a massive industrial site, with associated Battery Energy Storage System (BESS).

Generating cheap, renewable energy…

This is a claim that is often made for renewables, but as we have seen it is certainly questionable.

The proposed 35MW, 200 acre solar farm would be able to generate enough green energy to meet the annual energy needs of approximately 15,000 homes.

This claim is dependent on it achieving electricity generation at the levels claimed, and I have no way of knowing how accurate the claim is. Naturally it makes no mention of the fact that it will produce next to nothing in winter, nothing overnight, and is generally unreliable. I can’t state with confidence how much capacity will be lost over time due to photovoltaic degredation, but over 40 years I imagine it will not be insubstantial. All of which means that the headline claims should be treated with caution. And even if the headline figure is accurate, it amounts to intermittent electricity for just 120 homes for every football field of solar panels.

Genuine benefits for local residents including a community benefit and education fund of £680,000 over the projects [sic] lifetime.

This should also be probed for clarity. £680,000 sounds like a lot of money, but over 40 years it represents just £17,000 p.a. or little more than £1 p.a. for each of those 15,000 homes whose energy needs the developers claim they will meet. And that assumes that we take the headline figure at face value. Is it to be index-linked? Is it to be spread over 40 years without indexation? If so, it will be virtually worthless before very long.

There is to be a community consultation which closes on Sunday 13^th April. I hope the locals take the opportunity to probe the above claims and to make their opposition clear. The problem is, it doesn’t matter how many people object, and however lucid their objections. We all know that the consultation process involves little more than going through the motions, since with the government’s obsessive drive to grid decarbonisation and its proposed amendments to the planning laws, it will be nothing short of a miracle if this proposal does not receive planning permission.

Which is a long-winded way of leading into the proposed solar farm development I really want to talk about, namely Lostrigg Solar. My interest in this development was piqued when I spotted a pile of glossy brochures in my local library the other day. They are hot off the press (dated March 2025) and are numerous copies of the Lostrigg Solar “Statement of Community Consultation”. If the prospect of Cobra Castle’s 200 acres is daunting to environmentalists, then Lostrigg Solar’s 417 hectares (or approximately 1,030 acres, or 584 football pitches) might induce a shudder. The glossy magazine tells us that in addition to the photovoltaic panels, there is to be a co-located BESS, an on-site sub-station, and a range of supporting infrastructure, including inverters, transformers, switchgear, and security measures such as fencing, CCTV and lighting.

Acronym alert: because the development is so vast (with a “potential generation capacity of up to 100 megawatts (MW)”), it is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) – a designation triggered at 50 MW. This means that it requires a Development Consent Order (DCO) under the Planning Act 2008. As part of this process, a Statutory Consultation must take place for a minimum of 28 days, but first, pursuant to section 47 of the Planning Act the developer has to prepare a Statement of Community Consultation (SoCC), to explain how it will carry out the Statutory Consultation. This all seems very worthy, but also very bureaucratic, and rather pointless, given that under the current government the odds are that this development will be rubber-stamped by the Secretary of State in due course in any event, whatever well-founded objections local communities may raise during the Statutory Consultation.

There is a Preliminary Environmental Information Report (PEIR), with accompanying Non-Tecnical Summary (NTS) and other draft DCO documents, including draft Management Plans, Draft Design Approach Document (DAD) and draft Policy Compliance Document (PCD). With me so far? If not, this might help:

The PEIR sets out potential impacts and accompanying mitigation.

The draft Management Plans outline the proposed management regimes for the Proposed Development.

The draft DAD sets out the design approach and design parameters.

The draft PCD sets out a detailed schedule of all the relevant national and local planning policy and how the Proposed Development responds to these.

There is a Core Consultation Zone and a wider consultation area, plus “seldom heard, hard to reach, groups and wider outreach”. Commendably, these include the likes of West Cumbria Society for the Blind, Cumbria Deaf Association, Cumbria Academy for Autism, Alzheimer’s Society West Cumbria and North Cumbria West Community Team, and many others, who my instincts tell me probably won’t be very interested, but it appears to be inclusive and therefore looks good. Among those others, however, are a surprising number of bodies who I suspect are bound to be both interested and supportive. It’s only when you see them listed that you realise how far the Green Blob’s tentacles spread. Bear in mind that this is just in respect of west Cumbria: Bridgefoot and Little Clifton Energy Hub Working Group (Bridgefoot and Little Clifton Energy Hub is a working group of Bridgefoot and Little Clifton Parish Council, set up to look for ways the community and residents can reduce energy costs, improve energy efficiency and thereby reduce carbon emissions”); Cumbria Action for Sustainablity (“We are Cumbria’s climate change charity. We’re here to help Cumbrians to reduce their carbon footprint and prevent climate change.”); Cumbria Sustainability Network (The network meets monthly online and helps the groups to strengthen their influence on carbon reduction at a more strategic level in county, by working collectively as well as campaigning as individual groups. The CSN is an important part of the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership, helping to ensure that the voice of the community takes centre stage in the county’s carbon reduction plans. The CSN is supported by a coordinator, thanks to the Zero Carbon Cumbria funding from the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund.”); Friends of the Earth – Cumbria; Cumbrian Energy Revolution (“We believe the best way to develop the West Cumbrian economy is through a green revolution concentrating on renewable energy rather than expanding the nuclear industry”); South Lakes Action on Climate Change (what’s it got to do with them? – they’re nowhere near the Proposed Develoment, though that didn’t stop them vociferously opposing the proposed coal mine); Zero Carbon Cumbria; and Cumberland Council Climate Team.

I think it’s fair to say that this “outreach” section of the exercise is aimed at reaching people with little or no interest (not likely to respond and not likely to object, but boxes duly ticked) and also in generating as many positive and supportive responses as possible from reliably vocal renewables cheer-leaders..

Back to the process. Once the consultation exercise has been completed, the application goes to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS), as the body responsible for managing the examination process for NSIPs. In the case of energy-related NSIPs, however, PINS acts on behalf of the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (currently Mr Miliband). Should PINS accept the application for examination, an Examining Authority will be appointed, and the public will be able to submit a relevant representation and become an interested party. The application will then be examined and a recommendation made to Mr Miliband (assuming he’s still the relevant Secretary of State by then). He will review the recommendation and decide whether to grant consent. I don’t imagine William Hill will give me long odds on a bet on the outcome. In which case, really, what’s the point of all of the above?

By the way, the application is being submitted by a subsidiary of German company RWE, so this will be yet another piece of critical energy infrastructure owned by a foreign company. They’re a little more coy than the proposed developers of Cobra Castle, and they don’t commit to any specific sum with regard to community benefits, merely observing that the development “has the potential to support local initiatives through a community benefit fund which would take the form of annual payments spread across the 40-year operational period”. They have, however, used the same crib sheet as Cobra Castle (I suspect these are standard claims with developments of this sort, however outlandish they may be) – claiming the potential to boost local biodiversity such as by establishing wildflower meadows and grassland areas (despite the fact that much of the area they propose to blight already consists of such areas); explore opportunities to enhance green infrastructure, such as woodland blocks and hedgerow planting; explore opportunities for continued low intensity grazing during operation; and provide opportunities for enhanced public operation and access.

I note the lack of commitment – “explore opportunities” is not the same as saying they have firm proposals to put forward. It’s difficult to see how the industrialisation of a vast area of farmland can be described as enhancing biodiversity, but that’s the topsy turvy world we now live in.

Within fairly close proximity, then, we see two proposed developments that are at a northerly latitude where they make no sense, which when they go ahead will industrialise existing farm land, and which involve (especially in the case of Lostrigg) massive bureaucratic exercises that are surely nothing more than a charade, a pointless formality. My money is on both developments being granted planning permission without much difficulty. Should the local authority refuse permission for Cobra Castle Solar Farm I have no doubt permission will be granted on appeal, and Lostrigg, being a NSIP which will go to Mr Miliband and will be rubber-stamped with enthusiasm and alacrity.

I shall be watching developments. If it turns out that I am wrong, I will eat humble pie in a comment below the article. Watch this space.