Rooftop Revolution Report

Solar farms continue to hit the headlines, especially in local media. At CPRE we are repeatedly asked for help in challenging a solar proposal that would be an industrial scale intrusion into the landscape. But climate breakdown poses the biggest threat to our countryside, and we need renewable energy. How can the two be reconciled? The answer might have been above us all along.

A major new CPRE report has found that over half the solar panels needed to hit national net zero targets could be fitted on rooftops and in car parks. As we know, too often developers come into a rural areas to impose a plan that suits their priorities, which are usually profits, resulting in industrial scale renewables on ecologically important Greenfield sites. This can lead to objections to large solar farm applications, local opposition to renewable energy schemes and failures to go ahead, which is ultimately detrimental to net zero targets. But It doesn’t have to be this way!

Research, by the UCL Energy Institute, for CPRE, shows that decarbonising the national energy grid requires far less land than feared. Installing solar panels on existing buildings and car parks would enjoy near-universal public support and help minimise objections to large solar farms in the countryside, the research finds. It also reveals that the potential of brownfield sites to generate renewable energy is dramatically underused.

To find out more about CPRE’s Rooftop Revolution Report click on the link below.
Rooftop Revolution Report May 2023