That is not being consistent with your argument against solar farms. You were complaining about the wasteful use of otherwise good agricultural land. The same claim can be made against golf courses - and these cover a much, much greater area of land than solar farms. Now you do not care about wasteful use of agricultural land - because the golf courses are well manicured. What has careful mowing got to do with growing crops or not? You can’t make one claim against solar farms then be fully accepting of the same issue for other uses of land. That just demonstrates that your argument against solar farms boils down to you do not like them. No more justification than that.
They have found that sheep do very well grazing under solar panel. It even improves the pasture because condensation on the underside of the panel waters the grass, and, of course, the panels provide shade. It’s a win win.
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They are proposing to build a solar farm near me at Tween Bridge…It will cover land over 2500 hectares…That works out at over 6250 football pitches (2.5 football pitches to one hectare)…Granted, that would be for a none international pitch…That would be some Golf Course.
I’m trying to work out how to explain the difference between 0.07% and 2% more clearly. And how another 2,500 acres does not really impact these numbers significantly. The best I can come up with is x28 bigger and yet for some an infinitely smaller problem.
2500 HECTARES Actually Lincs…
I think it would be difficult to play footie on a solar farm, how would you fit in the goal posts? Anyway you are probably talking about soccer so just think how many boring games a solar farm would save. It’s a Win:Win situation.
Better to use them for grazing sheep best of all worlds.
I’m just wondering how long sheep would be able to graze on ground that no longer sits in daylight. Not much usually grows without the sun.
And aren’t we producing more CO2 from sheep farts, just the thing we are trying to avoid with solar panels?
With a few bits of cladding and canvas around the support frames, you could turn them into affordable houses too.
I think this thread has run it’s course… 
I don’t know but in practice is works well. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, it even improves wool quality.
Irrespective of how profitable a solar farm may be (I assume they don’t need subsidies if they are so good?), it still doesn’t remove the fact they you’ll still need traditional power stations available for when the sun don’t shine.
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Of course it does Bruce, I expect you are listening two very rich farmers now…
But traditional power stations were hardly needed at night that is why off peak electricity was so cheap - to try to persuade people to use more of it at night. Power is most needed during the day which is coincidentally when the sun shines most. How handy is that?
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I guess that’s true, apart from the evenings when demand will be high and solar output not quite up to the mark.
It’s this thing about “profitably” that I’m getting bogged down with. Profitable for who?
As it happened I was…
Co-incidentally I was listening to two very rich farmers this evening sitting at the table next to me while I was having a meal in Ivanhoe RSL Club.
They were discussing buying another secondhand helicopter for herding their cattle and later buying 200000 hectares which has come up for sale. It’s a different world I can tell you. Solar farms weren’t mentioned.
They were dressed much the same as me though a bit scruffier - one had thongs (flip flops to you) and the other work boots
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Power stations are closely monitored and turned off or turned down overnight when demand was limited. Depending on the weather and time of day, even when an important football match was taking place and everyone put the kettle on at half time, it was easy to forecast the demand. At night when a cold snap was forecast, the national grid would be ready to respond to the high demand.
So if hardly anyone needs electricity during the sunny days, solar panels will still be producing maximum output…Hence…Too much electricity that will go to earth, or to charge up massive lithium battery storage units that might supply power for very short periods.
And with the rise of the electric vehicle, the demand for electricity at night will be immense with everyone taking advantage of the cheaper electricity at night…But it won’t be cheaper for long, will it.
Solar panels are totally impractical for major supply solutions in the UK, and the money and land required is just silly. Solar Panels are good for small businesses and private houses, but large scale projects are just taking the piss…
I know, I have worked in a few.
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Oh dear! Yesterdays output from solar panels…In Yellow…
It would appear that wind and gas fired power stations were doing the heavy lifting…There’s yer answer. Am I the only one who recognises this…
I think we’re kinda getting back to the main issue of how to store surplus energy. Current battery technology doesn’t seem quite up to scratch. So, either water towers (for hydroelectric), or heat stores are the only ones that come to my mind.
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Seems to be working OK
They are still cheaper than building new power stations
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