• The Government commissioned an independent paper on National Food Strategy, which was published in late 2021 (https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/the-report/).  It made a few key observations:
• The next big shock to our food supply will almost certainly be caused by climate change in the form of extreme weather events and catastrophic harvest failures.  It follows that addressing climate change will improve the security of or food supply. 
• Food security is not the same as food self-sufficiency.  Growing all of the food that we requirement in this country would be a high-risk approach as one bad season (drought / flood etc) would damage our entire supply.  Instead, food security is best delivered by diversifying our supply chain and importing a proportion of our requirement to spread the risk to supply. 
• We do not have the climate to allow us to grow all of the food that consumers want in this country.  Similarly, we cannot consume all of some types of food that we can grow, so import and export of food is an important part of our national food strategy. 
• The UK’s Agricultural Report for 2020/21 notes that 71% of our land is used for farming (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/agriculture-in-the-united-kingdom-2021/summary) 
• Solar Energy UK published a paper about the Facts About Solar Energy (https://solarenergyuk.org/resource/everything-under-the-sun-the-facts-about-solar-energy/?cn-reloaded=1 ).  In it, they note that to meet the government’s net zero target, the Climate Change Committee estimates that we will need between 75-90GW of solar by 2050. Their analysis indicates this would mean solar farms would at most account for approximately 0.4-0.6% of UK land – less than the amount currently used for golf courses or growing Christmas trees. 
• This means that we would need to use less than 1% of the land currently in use for food production in order to meaningfully mitigate an existential threat to our food security.  Given that climate change is already causing significant (much greater than 1%) downturn in crop yields, this seems like a very sensible thing to do. 

Absolutely. Solar works efficiently everywhere in the UK as solar panels do not require direct sunlight to operate. They produce energy all year round and have the potential to produce over a quarter of the UK’s power on sunny days. 

No, they take up very little space. Even under 2050 Net Zero targets, where the installed capacity is expected to grow from the current 14GW to 70GW, solar farms would occupy 0.5% of the UK’s land, which is less than what is currently used for golf courses and airpor

Not at all. Research shows that solar panel’s carbon payback is 1-4 years. They generate a hundred times more energy than it takes to manufacture them over a 40-year warranty period.  

A UK survey found that solar farms can support declining wildlife species, especially when managed for conservation. Birds like linnets, yellowhammers, and skylarks were observed, along with mammals like brown hares. Solar farms also provide habitats for butterflies and bees, potentially benefiting nearby agriculture through increased pollination. The report emphasizes the importance of conservation-focused management to promote biodiversity on solar farms. Well-designed and well-managed solar farms can contribute to addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. (https://solarenergyuk.org/news/solar-farms-can-be-wildlife-havens/)

You can most definitely recycle solar panels! Up to 99% of materials in a solar panel are recyclable and are built to last for decades. 

According to government surveys, solar is considered the most popular energy source. Records from 2021 show that 90% of public support solar, with 81% saying that they would not oppose a solar farm being built in their area.