Representation by Christopher Brown
- Date submitted
- 27 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I write to express my strong objections to the Mallard Pass scheme for the reasons set out below. While I recognise some effort has gone into mitigating the immediate impact on the local area, there are fundamental flaws at a conceptual level which cannot be overcome. 1. It is not an appropriate use of this land. The larger proportion of this solar development would be on high grade agricultural land which according to the UK Government’s own policies is to be avoided. The issues with food security now arising from the war in Ukraine underline the importance of this. Solar development should be limited to residential, industrial and brownfield sites. 2. From a wider perspective, large solar developments are best suited to areas where available land is plentiful and solar radiation is reliably high. Neither of these are the case in the UK. There is already fierce competition for land for housing and agriculture. Average solar radiation in UK is among the lowest in the world and is particularly low in the winter when energy demand is highest. The UK is already working with other countries to import solar energy from where it can be more efficiently produced which is a more promising avenue than sacrificing land needed for other purposes. UK does have potential for large scale renewable energy projects such as wind and tidal schemes, but solar is not naturally our strength. 3. There are significant ethical and geopolitical concerns about the supply chains for solar panels. The parallels between the historical import of cheap cotton from slave plantations in America and our contemporary reliance on dubious labour practices in China for cheap solar equipment should concern us all. It is all the worse given that while America was an ally, the Chinese regime most definitely is not. We are thus at risk of simultaneously enriching our enemies while encouraging unethical behaviour which would not be tolerated here.