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Reform UK mayor pulled up for ‘hypocritical’ attack on solar farms

Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns has launched an attack on the UK’s latest ‘solar project’:

She’s facing some criticism for this, as it turns out she was once something of a solar head herself:


Consequently, people are suggesting she’s only attacking solar farms now because Reform have decided it’s a winning wedge issue (that or because their fossil fuel donors want them to).

Farm land for the farmers?

Reform’s argument is pretty straight forward and easy to agree with at face value, which is that ‘farm land should be used for farming’. Does the argument hold up, however?

In a fact sheet on solar farms and agricultural land, Solar Energy UK note the key consideration for any solar project is whether it’s nearby to a “viable grid connection”. While lower grade or brownfield is preferable, they note that most such plots are “small scale” and assigned to pre-existing projects. This means projects will often consider usable farmland.

In a BBC article, farmers highlighted that they could make significant money by renting out their land to solar projects, and yet many choose not to. In the same article, Chris Hewett of Solar Energy UK said:

We need less than half a percent of UK land, for a fully decarbonised energy grid.

That is the amount of land we use for golf courses – and less than we use for airports.

Others have made a similar point:

In an article on the project Jenkyns highlighted – the largest such project in the UK – energy minister Michael Shanks said:

Families across Lincolnshire and the rest of the country have seen their energy bills go through the roof as a result of our exposure to volatile gas prices.

Solar is one of the cheapest and quickest power sources we can build, it is crucial in our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower – giving us energy security, good jobs and growth across the country.

While an increased capacity for renewable energy should bring down energy bills, it may be offset by the government allowing US tech companies to build AI data centres over here. On the plus side, it will mean we can generate worthless videos like the following at a slightly faster clip:


Regardless of the finer points, many view Reform as being cynical on this issue, and it’s not hard to see why:


Ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe was literally making money off solar farming:

Jenkyns herself made herself the face of solar:

It’s no wonder she can’t sleep at night; she’s no doubt been worried that the solar photo shoot would get out:

A desire to keep these images hidden may be why she asked for a bigger mayoral team despite promising to cut costs before being elected, although that is of course speculation.

Decisions

With anything like this, there are pros and cons.

If we can get cheaper electricity while drastically improving our air quality and carbon footprint, that seems like a pretty good deal if all we have to lose is as much land as we currently dedicate towards golf. We’re not immune to the arguments against losing farm land, however, which is why we’d like to suggest nationalising Britain’s golfing infrastructure to dedicate the land towards renewable energy.

Now that would really wind up Reform’s wealthy donors.

Featured image via X/Twitter

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.