Star comment: Can solar farms be that good?
If a self-appointed expert, a boss of a solar farm company, or an environmental campaigner, says that there is nothing for Salopians to fear from solar farms, you would justifiably think that they would say that, wouldn't they?
However this reassuring message is coming from people who should know what they are talking about – as they live next door to one. They are residents of a village in Leicestershire who we have spoken to.
They are untroubled by the solar farm development. There is also something in favour of the solar farm which you might not think of at first – and that is that a solar farm is not hundreds of new houses built on green fields, nor is it a highly visible forest of wind turbines breaking up the rural skyline.
Solar farms have not yet taken off in Shropshire but they are about to. A solar farm may be coming to somewhere near you soon. One is already under way on a site in the north part of Telford. Others are on the drawing board for a variety of sites around the county.
See also:
Energy boss predicts scores of solar farms for Shropshire
No complaints over solar farm
Reaction has been mixed. There are protests against plans for sites in south Shropshire which the objectors say will be a blot on the landscape. With some of the others, such as the Telford scheme, reaction has been more muted.
For those who feel these developments will ruin the countryside the bad news is that there seems to be a presumption among officialdom that solar power is good and solar power is right, and consequently there are incentives in place which make these schemes more financially attractive than they would otherwise be.
Apart from the planning battles, which will turn on environmental impact and the suitability of the chosen sites, there is the wider strategic war. The issue here is whether these solar farms will make a worthwhile contribution to Britain's energy needs.
Great claims are being made for Shropshire's solar farms before they are even built. But how can anybody know? They are projections.
There is a military saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy. For solar farms, contact with the enemy means contact with the unpredictable British weather, which will not allow anybody to take it for granted.
Shropshire will only get to learn whether solar farms are living up to their billing when they are in operation.
