There’s a growing agricultural contribution to renewable energy generation, but they need faster, affordable access to rural electricity grid connections.
It was encouraging to hear Chancellor Jeremy Hunt speaking on 22 November about the government’s commitment to removing barriers to investment in critical infrastructure. However, their action on supporting and prioritising low-carbon energy projects while streamlining the electricity grid connection process is focused on large-scale projects. As such it may offer only limited grid modernisation benefits to farm businesses and other small-to-medium sized enterprises.
Many of the NFU’s farmer and grower members enhance their own energy independence and business resilience, while avoiding carbon emissions, through on-site power generation. Farmers own or host about 70% of the UK’s total solar generation capacity, whether on rooftops of agricultural buildings or in solar farms, and the majority of onshore wind power is located on farmland. Solar remains the most popular form of renewable energy generation in British agriculture, with at least 20,000 agricultural rooftop installations and about 1,300 ground-mounted solar farms.
However, the d
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