Plans for a large solar farm - the fifth to be proposed in Norfolk in recent weeks - have been described as "deeply worrying" by the county council's leader.
The project by Noventum Power could be built near Long Stratton, an area of the county that had already been eyed for the largest solar farm in the UK.
Plans for what would have been the biggest solar farm in Cornwall have been refused.
People living near the 210 acre site, close to the A30 at Carland Cross, argued it would harm the landscape, take up valuable agricultural land and increase the risk of flooding.
A government minister has said that far more applications have been made for solar farms than the country will ever need. Graham Stuart, the energy minister, made the remark after being asked about concerns over recent plans for solar farms, including in North Lincolnshire. "An awful lot of the projects, talking nationally, will never see the light of day," he added.
Plans for a vast solar farm have prompted residents from three villages to take action in a bid to prevent the ancient parishes from being ‘engulfed’.
One Earth Solar Farm, which is in the early stages of planning, is a proposed solar farm with associated battery storage, on land surrounding North Clifton, South Clifton, Fledborough and Ragnall.
Jeremy Hunt has asked Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to review a decision to build a solar farm on green belt land.
The University of Surrey was given permission to build on a 43-hectare site west of Blackwell Farm, on the Hog's Back, near Guildford. Hunt, MP for Godalming and Ash, said he was concerned "due weight was not given to the site" in terms of it being in Surrey Hills National Landscape.
Britain’s energy regulator Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) has recommended for approval plans for two high-voltage subsea cable links to Europe, which have the potential to power millions of homes, making use of the green power in the North Sea and boosting import and export capacity for clean energy.
Political momentum is swaying in favour of European solar panel manufacturers, as work progresses on a new EU law banning forced labour practices that would effectively block Chinese imports.
Mines are keeping 350 homes in Gateshead warm once again but now without burning a single lump of coal. Water in flooded shafts and tunnels, heated by the Earth's crust, promises a green revolution, with around six million households close to former pits.
Productive farmland is targeted by solar developers, leaving farmers like Andrew Dakin with little say. "Our old way of life will be gone forever. And I've worked on this farm all my life, seven days a week. I've not been on holiday since I was 15. Not because I didn't want to, but I like being here on the farm."
A new project set to power 1.3 million UK homes is being built this year, with the investment set to create "thousands of jobs". ScottishPower announced the project in 2023, with work due to start later this year. The project - East Anglia Three - will see an offshore wind farm built off the Norfolk coast.
South Korea-based Standard Energy has developed a battery with just 1% degradation after 20,000 testing cycles. The company uses vanadium-ion batteries (ViB).
SolarDuck, a Dutch startup with the mission to provide the world with offshore clean energy, announced that it has secured an additional €15 million in funding for the development and deployment of Offshore Floating Solar power technology.
Ørsted has suspended its dividend and slashed targets for developing renewables as the world’s largest offshore wind developer plots a recovery following a calamitous 12 months.
Fears that Lincolnshire could become a "dumping ground" for solar farms are growing after 14 applications were submitted over the past year. Councillors are concerned these projects could have a significant impact on the county's agricultural sector and have called for the number of renewable energy schemes on farmland to be limited.
Dr Caroline Johnson met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to convey concerns from her constituents regarding the scale of current large solar farm proposals.
The UK Government has announced the purchase of the Wylfa and Oldbury nuclear sites from Hitachi for £160 million. The deal, revealed during the Budget, has been met with anticipation from industry insiders and stakeholders.
Europe’s solar power industry has warned policymakers not to impose tariffs on imports, amid fears that disrupting supplies of products from China would seriously damage Europe’s ability to rapidly install clean energy.
The UK has announced its departure from the Energy Charter Treaty after unsuccessful attempts to align it with net zero goals. The UK has officially withdrawn from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a decision announced by Energy Security and Net Zero Minister Graham Stuart.
Italy’s energy utility Enel inaugurated its expanded 3Sun solar panel manufacturing facility in Sicily, making it the biggest factory in Europe, officials said.
Europe’s solar power industry has warned policymakers not to impose tariffs on imports, amid fears that disrupting supplies of products from China would seriously damage Europe’s ability to rapidly install clean energy.
The European Commission on Friday (9 December) officially launched the EU’s solar photovoltaic industry alliance, with the aim of regaining production lost to China and establishing a “Made in Europe” industry.
A battery safety plan for what is set to be the UK’s biggest solar farm has been rejected. Councillors voted down the proposals after almost four hours of debate and despite warnings of a “high risk there will be costs” to the council for rejecting them. The safety plan has faced intense local opposition, with more than 100 Swale residents writing in to the council to criticise the proposals.
Campaigners have said their "fight is not over" after a plan for a solar farm near Horncastle was quashed. Push Energy's proposals for land adjacent to Sotby Woods on Sturton Road, in Hatton, were approved by East Lindsey District Council last year.
But people living in the area fiercely opposed it and, following a judicial review, a High Court judge said the council's approval was "unlawful".
The government has delayed a decision on a controversial £600m solar farm for a third time.
The proposed Sunnica Energy Farm on the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire border would span about 2,500 acres across both counties. Claire Coutinho, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, set a new decision deadline "of no later than 11 April 2024".
Campaigners are celebrating after a High Court judge said a council's approval of plans for a solar farm was unlawful. Approved by Durham County Council, Lightsource bp's contentious plans to transform a 92-hectare site near Burnhope into a huge solar farm are fiercely opposed by residents.
A solar farm the size of about 33 football pitches has been given the go-ahead on green belt farmland despite being rejected by councillors.
Shropshire Council had declined planning permission for the site off Hall Lane, Kemberton, near Telford.
Plans for a large solar farm that would have powered 7,650 homes in Coventry have been rejected after opposition from residents.
More than 60,000 solar panels would have been installed on greenbelt farmland in the north of the city as part of the proposals.
Rishi Sunak has been urged to stick to a pledge to avoid building solar farms on agricultural land as a huge energy farm is considered for land in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. If approved, the project from Sunnica, an energy company, could create a Cabinet clash, with Lucy Frazer, the new Culture Secretary, vehemently opposing the development in her South East Cambridgeshire constituency.
UK farm land is being lost to solar panels, wind turbines, new housing and rewilding, leaving tenant farmers facing a ‘perfect storm'. Wind turbines and solar farms are taking up land previously occupied by food-producing farmers
There’s no such thing as a wind or solar ‘farm’, just an ugly industrial site. In a story filled with all the standard climate alarmist narratives, USA Today recently reported on the rising movement by local governments in the United States to refuse to permit unwanted wind and solar industrial sites in their jurisdictions.
The Government claims that its British Energy Security Strategy will increase the number of clean jobs in the UK by supporting around 112,000 additional jobs in renewable generation and hydrogen by the end of the decade.
The UK has surpassed 15GW of onshore wind capacity, enough to power nearly ten million homes annually. With 30.1MW capacity and seven turbines, this project contributes to the UK’s total onshore wind capacity of 15.002GW spread across 2,631 projects.
The Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii) has abandoned its strategy to export solar power generated from the Sahara to Europe, killing hopes of boosting the continent’s share of renewable electricity with cheap external supplies.
A record year for building new wind farms and a rebound in investments in the sector have raised hopes that the EU may achieve its clean energy targets, industry group WindEurope said on Wednesday. In an annual report, WindEurope described 2023 as a year of "significant improvements" in key areas of Europe's wind energy sector, which struggled in 2022.
An application for battery storage units at the UK's biggest solar farm has been refused.
Cleve Hill Solar Park, at Graveney, in Kent, was given government approval in May 2020. The plans require a 150-megawatt battery facility over 25 acres to store energy generated by 880,000 solar panels.
SSEN has raised the possibility of more subsea cables being built to link Shetland to the UK mainland as a result of anticipated energy production and demand.
A 600MW HVDC transmission link has already been laid by the company between Shetland and Caithness ahead of the Viking Energy wind farm going live later this year.
National Grid has unveiled the selected locations for its new green energy link to the Netherlands, including landfall, cable route and converter station sites.
The project aims to connect Suffolk to the Netherlands and a Dutch offshore wind farm, facilitating the sharing of 1.8GW of green energy.
Britain endured a record 214 hours of negative electricity prices in 2023, according to a report.
Britain experienced 214 hours of negative power prices in 2023, according to Imperial College London’s Electric Insights report.
The UK should target installing 27GW of wave energy by 2050 for an efficient net zero energy system, according to a new report. A recent study from LUT University Finland proposes that the UK should set a goal of achieving 27GW of wave energy by 2050 to optimise its net zero energy aspirations.
A Scottish wind farm operator has been ordered to pay a £5.5m fine for overcharging the National Grid to switch off turbines at peak times. Dorenell Wind Farm in Scotland’s Highlands was found to have charged “excessive prices” when asked to reduce its power output on multiple occasions since 2020.
A 150MW battery energy storage system (BESS), to be deployed along with 373MW of solar PV as part of the Cleve Hill Solar Park project, has reportedly been rejected by the local planning authority in the UK.
Ørsted has taken the final investment decision (FID) on what the company says is the world’s single largest offshore wind farm, the 2.9 GW Hornsea 3, which is expected to be completed around the end of 2027.
Firefighters have been called today (Saturday) to an incident at a solar farm in Burton Pedwardine. Crews were dispatched from Sleaford to a transformer smoking on a solar farm on Asgarby Road. People in the area have since been asked to keep all windows and doors closed due to smoke.
A series of fires that occurred between 2017 and 2019 brought South Korea’s energy storage market to a standstill. New research seeks now to shed light on all the causes of the accidents and analyzes several social factors that may have led to the continuous occurrence of the accidents.
The world’s largest wind turbine has smashed the record for the most power produced by a single turbine in a day.
Offshore from Fujian Province, China, the giant Goldwind GWH252-16MW towers above the sea.
On 1 September, the mammoth turbine - which has a 252-metre diameter - produced 384.1 megawatt hours (MWh) in 24 hours.
Solar panels in the countryside are disliked by many rural Conservative MPs, and the Observer can reveal that Sunak and environment secretary Thérèse Coffey have revived plans to put new restrictions on this form of cheap renewable energy.
Plans for a large solar farm in North Yorkshire have been rejected following hundreds of objections.
If given the go-ahead, the development, near Malton, would have provided energy for 8,660 homes, Harmony Energy said.
As the first generation of solar panels are expected to die off in the coming years, experts have warned that many could end up in landfill rather than recycled because of a drastic lack of infrastructure.
The UK's round 6 renewable energy auction next month offers a price cap of 73 pounds/MWh for offshore wind developers after the government increased the price by 66% following no eligible bids in last year's auction. A higher UK price cap is expected to spur competitive bidding in next month’s crucial offshore wind auction.
Orsted (ORSTED.CO), opens new tab is expected to trim investment plans and cut dividends on Wednesday as it presents a new strategy but investors are worried that the Danish renewable energy firm may want to raise new capital to stick to its ambitious targets.
Germany's government has announced that it will tender for 10 gigawatts (GW) of new gas-fired power station capacity that must be ready to switch to clean hydrogen in the future transition away from polluting fossil fuels.
Sir Robert Goodwill says farmers face ‘perfect storm’ and urges Government to look at whether more food can be produced domestically.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has thrown food security into sharp focus, with experts warning that Britain is increasingly vulnerable to volatile prices and one global shock away from a food crisis.
Countryside campaigners have warned that swathes of rural southern England face being ruined by “massive industrialisation” with plans for one of the country’s largest solar farms given the go-ahead.
The approval of plans for a large solar power plant in Oxfordshire has sparked fears of a “tidal wave of solar farms” despoiling rural areas.
ANDREW NEIL: Everywhere, there's a growing public revolt against net zero, forcing politicians across Europe to renege on green virtue signalling.
The headlong rush to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, pursued for so long by democratic governments across the globe regardless of cost, has finally hit the buffers of voter resistance.
Dr Johnson said rural areas had been "plagued" by plans and villages would be surrounded by a "sea" of panels.
She urged the government to reconsider whether it should decide on 50MW-plus schemes instead of local councils, which consider smaller-scale projects.
A councillor has claimed Lincolnshire is being used as a dumping ground for green energy projects that benefit other parts of the country.
Conservative county councillor Colin Davie said the interests of local people should be put first.
Planned large-scale solar farms in Lincolnshire would have "a catastrophic" impact on communities, a council leader has warned.
Four sites have been proposed for West Lindsey, with two crossing into neighbouring parts of Nottinghamshire.
Planning permission for in-field solar farms on Wales’ most productive land looks set to be refused after the Welsh government stepped in with advice to planners.
The adverse effects of solar power are associated with land use, water use, habitat loss, and the harmful materials used in manufacturing of solar panels.
... Instead of building solar power stations by clearing a piece of land, homes and buildings can be equipped with individual solar panels on a large scale.
Billions from green subsidies ‘should be used to cut household bills, not handed to energy companies’ Energy giants set to benefit from more than £1.2bn of payments from wind and solar farms as gas prices soar.
The application on a site near Gotham and East Leake was discussed at a Rushcliffe Borough Council planning meeting today Thursday 9 March. The proposals for the solar farm were voted on in today’s meeting:
The vote was a unanimous refusal.
Solar farms are growing in numbers around the world.
But is it safe to live near solar farms?
What are the health implications of living near solar farms?
Loss of good agricultural land, the impact on landscape and prized walking areas, a defence of the democratic process, and a perceived loss of house price value are among the reasons opponents give to such renewable energy schemes.