SOLAR FAQs
Q: Why don't we put solar on rooftops instead of farmland?
A: It’s not either/or - we need more of both ground-mount and rooftop solar.
As of August 2024, the UK has 16.9 GW solar installed and the new government has a target to triple solar generation by 2030 in order to fully decarbonise our electricity supply. This objective cannot be delivered by rooftop solar alone - only 5% of solar photovoltaic systems with a capacity of at least 1 MW are installed on rooftops.
We would like to see every new domestic and commercial rooftop in the UK have solar panels and would also like to see much more solar on existing commercial rooftops. However retrofitting solar to commercial rooftops can be prohibitive due to numerous insurmountable technical and financial difficulties.
Each of the following need to be committed and/or incentivised to make it work: landlord, landlord’s asset manager (as most commercial buildings are owned by investment funds), tenant (or multiple tenants), roofing manufacturer (as usually within the 25 year warranty period), insurance company, landlord’s bank, tenant’s bank, solar developer, solar installer, and HMRC (business rates can often be punitive on rooftop solar).
Ground-mount solar also provides economies of scale, helping keep consumer energy costs down. A 200-acre solar farm can generate enough clean power for the equivalent of approximately 15,000 homes, enough to power a small town.
Q: Are solar farms a threat to food security?
A: Solar farms provide an important source of homegrown energy and there is no conflict between food security and energy security. Climate change is the biggest threat to food security (DEFRA UK Food Security Report 2021) and is already having devastating consequences for many farmers in the UK and across the world.
Solar farms are tackling this directly. The rental income helps farm businesses diversify, tiding them over when times are tough. They can also continue to graze the land between and around solar panels. Solar helps secure UK food production - now and in the future - by supporting farmers over the long term. Numerous research shows that the proportion of farmland needed to deliver our 2030 solar targets is tiny – less than 0.5%.
That’s why the National Farmers’ Union is generally supportive of solar and contributed to this factsheet on Solar Farms and Agricultural Land
Solar farms are a time limited and completely reversible land use with restoration of land at the end of the solar farm’s life usually guaranteed by a planning condition.
Q: What impact does solar have on wildlife?
A: Solar farms are generally really positive for nature and wildlife and can help reverse the dramatic declines caused by intensive farming reliant on chemicals and removal of habitats. Solar farms are proven to increase biodiversity by becoming mini-nature reserves, with ecological enhancements including wildflower meadows, new trees and hedgerows, ponds, beehives, bird and bat boxes and hibernacula.
While a minimum Biodiversity Net Gain of 10% became mandatory for all new developments in 2024, Eden’s solar farms usually deliver much more than this.
Eden has led the solar industry in both establishing and monitoring positive nature impacts on our solar farms. We were a major contributor to Solar Energy UK’s ‘Natural Capital Best Practice Guidance’ published in May 2022, and our team’s projects also contribute data to SEUK’s Solar Habitat Reports.
Read more about biodiversity on our solar farms.
Q: How safe is battery storage?
A: Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) smooth out the peaks and troughs between renewable energy supply and demand, making the grid more resilient and contributing to lower energy prices. They are designed to strict industry guidelines subject to UK health and safety legislation.
They are securely housed with safety measures typically including heating and cooling systems to ensure they operate at safe temperatures; fire detection and suppression systems; and continuous external monitoring so that if any problems arise they are tackled quickly and the system can be isolated.
BESS have been installed in major cities like London and New York within metres of residents and businesses, and even in Swindon. The units on our solar farms are sited at least 100m from the edge of the solar farm.
They have an excellent safety record. BESS have been operating in the UK since 2006; as of July 2023 there were 100 BESS sites in the UK. There has only been one UK reported BESS fire, in Liverpool, in 2020. No one was injured and there was no lasting environmental damage.
Q: What’s the environmental impact of solar?
A: Solar farms are net positive for the environment. A solar farm is expected to pay back the energy used in manufacture and construction within 1 to 4 years of its operational lifetime. They are a time limited and completely reversible use of land, with a typical life of 25 to 40 years.
Nearly 99% of the solar panels are comprised of glass, silica, aluminum, steel, copper and plastic which are largely recyclable with a good salvage value. The costs of recycling the panels and restoring the land at the end of the solar farm’s life is accounted for in the overall project budget from the outset.
Q: Why do we need solar power when there are other ways of generating electricity?
A: We have only a short time to fully decarbonise our energy system, with the new 2024 UK government setting a target of 2030 (compared with the previous government target of 2035). We are barely halfway there. Electricity demand is expected to at least double as transport and heating switch from fossil fuels to electricity. We need to produce new green power as cheaply and quickly as possible.
Solar power can deliver clean, renewable energy at the pace and scale needed. Offshore wind farms can take 15 years to develop, nuclear power plants take longer still, and until July 2024 onshore wind was effectively banned in England.
As a relatively mature technology, solar can generate power at a lower cost without subsidies, so can help to bring down everyone’s energy bills. The new Labour government has a target to triple solar generation by 2030 (the Conservatives planned to increase it four-fold by 2035).
Q: How does solar affect my electricity bill?
A: Solar PV and onshore wind are our cheapest forms of power generation - less than gas, oil, coal, offshore wind, hydro or nuclear. If we want to keep our energy bills down, while continuing to use electricity for all our daily activities, we need more power from the sun and wind. The more renewables we generate, the cheaper our electricity bills will become.
We would love to supply homeowners directly with lower cost electricity, however the way the UK energy market is regulated does not currently allow that. This may change in the future thanks to the Local Electricity Bill which has been introduced into parliament and would allow electricity generators to become electricity suppliers. You can lend your support through Power for People’s campaign.
We have also partnered with Ripple Energy to offer shared community ownership at our Red Barn solar farm with potential for savings on electricity bills linked to your share of the project.
Q: What are the benefits for local people?
A: All our renewable energy projects include a community benefit fund package for the lifetime of the project. Related to the overall size of the project, this is likely to amount to several thousand pounds per year. The community decides how to spend the income to bring economic, social and environmental benefits to the area. At some projects we can also offer shared community ownership, either in partnership with a local community energy group or through Ripple Energy.
We also have a separate annual Education Fund for each project set aside for local schools and colleges. This is delivered by our partners Earth Energy Education, and as of 2024, over 10,000 children have benefited from classroom sessions and site visits to solar and wind farms developed by our team. Find out more about our industry-leading Eden Education Programme.
Every site also has a bespoke package of benefits-in-kind which can include new footpaths and bridleways, recreational areas, community access space, land for off-lead dog walking and allotments, fixed photography points and interpretation boards, and areas for beekeepers.
Q: What are the economic benefits of solar?
A: Business rates are paid directly to the Local Authority contributing to budgets for local services.
Solar farms also create jobs both locally, particularly for ongoing maintenance, and through the supply chain. According to the Climate Change Committee 2023 report A Net Zero Workforce between 135,000 and 725,000 net new jobs could be created by 2030 in the low-carbon sector.
Solar also contributes to the health of the UK economy by providing a source of low-cost, homegrown, carbon-free energy.
Q: What impact will a solar farm have on traffic?
A: The only traffic impact is during construction. Peak HGV movements are usually in the first 3 - 4 weeks of building the solar farm, when components are delivered to the site, after that they fall off sharply.
Our priorities are minimising disruption and the safety of other road users, and we will work with the local authority to produce a Construction Traffic Management Plan that sets out clearly the measures that will be implemented to do this. They will typically include specifying the HGV route, hours (to avoid peak periods and school drop off and pick up times), usage of banksmen where appropriate, etc.
After the solar farm is built there is minimal traffic - with occasional maintenance visits, typically one a month in a small van. For projects located on land that was previously farmed intensively there will be an overall reduction in large farm vehicles using the local roads after the solar farm is built leading to a net benefit.
Q: What about other impacts, like glare, noise and flooding?
A: Glint and glare are not usually an issue for solar farms. They are considered safe to install near airports and major roads. Potential impacts are assessed in planning, and are easy to mitigate. Solar panels are designed to absorb light, not reflect it. Glare is minimised through translucent coating materials to improve light transmittance through glass. Grass produces more glare than a PV array.
The panels operate without any discernible noise or vibration. The only noise is from inverters which convert the DC power to AC, and they are only audible within less than 100 metres.
There is no impact on flooding. Rain water runoff does not increase from the solar arrays and is dispersed and absorbed by the healthy grass sward underneath.
Solar panels do not create air or water pollution.
Q: How do solar farms connect to the electricity grid?
A: Solar farms require a connection to the electricity grid network (with some rare exceptions that are only connected to an end-user, called ‘private-wire’ or ‘behind the meter’). Smaller solar farms usually connect to the local distribution network, typically at lower voltage levels (e.g. 11kV or 33kV), with the connection negotiated with the Distribution Network Operator (DNO). In England, the 132kV network is also operated by the DNO. Larger solar farms may connect directly to the national transmission network, operated by the Transmission Operator (TO). This requires a connection at a much higher voltage level, often at 275kV or 400kV. In Scotland, connections at 132kV or above are operated by the TO.
The grid connection point may be some distance from the solar farm, and power is usually transported by a cable laid underground, in order to minimise visual impact.
Delays in connecting renewable energy projects to the electricity grid in the UK are a significant challenge, due to limited capacity, bottlenecks and the urgent need for upgrades. Many developers are having to wait until the mid-2030s to receive grid connection offers for their renewable energy projects.
Q: How popular are solar farms?
A: The level of public support for solar is consistently high, with the Government’s own polling showing that 85 - 90% support solar.
Research carried out by Copper Consultancy for Solar Energy UK also shows that support for solar farms is greater among people who live near them – and rises after they are built.
Q: How ethical is the supply chain?
A: Eden Renewables is committed to an ethical, transparent, environmentally-sustainable supply chain. This includes action to minimise and reduce the impact of extracting raw materials, to conserve water and to lower carbon emissions across the value chain, and to ensure the industry is free of any human rights abuses, including forced labour, anywhere in the global supply chain. We are a signatory to the industry’s supply chain statement supporting the Solar Stewardship Initiative that was launched in December 2023.
Q: Is there an impact on house prices?
A: We implement measures to ensure our sites will be well screened from neighbouring properties. An operational solar farm does not generate traffic or pollution and negligible levels of noise. Therefore there is no reason to expect property values to be negatively affected.