Power struggles: The countryside should not be viewed as an empty canvas on which to achieve everyone’s aims

Many people might think that 22,000 miles above Earth is the best place for a solar power station and, indeed, a spokesperson for Space Solar in Oxfordshire, the company that is hoping to achieve exactly that by 2040, with the first panels going up in 2028, describes it as a ‘no-regrets move’.

The idea is that it would be illuminated by the sun almost all of the time and would lead to far lower energy bills than nuclear power; it only needs investment — much, much more of it — and, as for all forms of energy, it has its detractors, too. We are in a Pandora’s Box, genie-out-of-the-bottle situation: the continually increasing knowledge about renewable energy in its many forms cannot be ignored — and it would be irresponsible to do so — yet the relentless rate of its progress threatens to trash the landscape as fast as others are trying to save it.

Ofgem has released figures that indicate that Britain has nowhere near the capacity (of electricity and water) to power the AI revolution that the Government desires. The physical manifestations of renewable energy are increasing exponentially in size and scope in front of our eyes. Wind turbines, which some people consider things of beauty — and, indeed, they can be mesmerising, great white sculptures gently revolving on the far horizon — are becoming bigger and bigger, leading to local angst and protest at the relentless noise and the desecration of views.

Solar panels, which even their makers could not describe as attractive, are growing like Topsy; those proposed at Lime Down in Wiltshire will bestride the fields at a height of 14ft 7in. The process of the construction and installation of these metallic beasts is a strain on rural infrastructure, miserable for locals and hardly environmentally friendly. Then there is the overlooked potential of brownfield sites and rooftops and the difficulty of an ecologically sustainable disposal at the end of the panels’ useful life.

According to the umbrella group Stop Oversized Solar, which covers some 20 protest groups from Yorkshire to Devon, the average size of a ‘Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project’ is 2,000 acres; one, in Nottinghamshire, would be 7,000, another would stretch for 17 miles of Norfolk countryside. The total loss of farmland by 2035 is estimated at 375,000 acres.

This all comes amid increased pressure on food security, not to mention the clamour to protect shrinking biodiversity rates, alongside the Government’s determination to force through planning permissions. Urgency is required, of course, but not panic, compromise instead of complete ruination, hard facts over emotion and ambition. There needs to be a calmer, more honest assessment of the merits of development and a less divisive left-right politicisation of the different types of power. The countryside should not be viewed as an empty canvas on which to achieve everyone’s aims.