A plan backed by the Duke of Beaufort to build a 2,000-acre solar farm near the King’s Highgrove estate has sparked a row with residents including his environmentalist ex-wife.
Protesters claim that the Lime Down Solar Park scheme, which is designed to generate 500 megawatts of clean energy will blight swaths of the countryside near the Fosse Way, a Roman road.
Part of the farm will be housed on the Duke’s 52,000-acre Badminton estate in Gloucestershire – as well as on land in a triangle between the market towns of Malmesbury, Tetbury and Chippenham.
Not quite God’s own country as it’s not in Somerset but it’s nearby. So., shouty, screamy, Noooo!
Protesters also fear that the development, comprising three and a half square miles of 14ft-high solar panels surrounded by security fencing and floodlights, will be turned into housing once the solar farm has served its purpose.
That’s the real complaint of course. That worry that at some point Britons might gain housing.
“That worry that at some point Britons might gain housing”
No problem, His Grace should specify that it will subsequently be used to house refugees. I’m sure the bien pensant types out there won’t want to be seen to be against green energy and refugees.
protesters claim that the Lime Down Solar Park scheme, which is designed to generate 500 megawatts of clean energy will blight swaths of the countryside
Well, they’re right, aren’t they?
That’s the real complaint of course. That worry that at some point Britons might gain housing.
Which “Britons” would that be? Some of the 10 million imported over the past 25 years? Or some actual Britons fleeing the places turned into shitholes by mass immigration?
What Marius said re the occupants of new housing except I’m not referring to indigenous white-flight Brits.
However before that happens I’ll bet the Duke isn’t stymied by uppity locals objecting to his light-emitting development unlike that unacceptable oik Clarkson.
’course. That worry that at some point Britons might gain housing.’
*hollow laughter. Britons, sure….
500MW is a measurement of power, not energy.
Sure it’s pendantry, but if you genuinely believe in there being an emergency you should learn this shit.
For solar farms it’s a measure of the amount of subsidy being farmed, not power or energy.
Excellent 500MW more power for those nice long days in summer when we use very little electricity as we don’t have/need much aircon, plus a small fraction of that for those cold dark winter days and zero for those long dark winter nights where we do need electricity.
Protesters also fear that the development, comprising three and a half square miles of 14ft-high solar panels surrounded by security fencing and floodlights, will be turned into housing once the solar farm has served its purpose.
Uh? What’s the life expectancy supposed to be on the panels? Given putting that lot in is going to take at least a couple of years if they started tomorrow & claimed life expectancy on photocells, you’re looking at re-purposing of the site for housing in 40 years odd. All of the complainants will be dead by then.
Unless, of course, this is a cunning ruse to get the permissions on the housing development.
There’s a good video on The Conservative Woman website neatly summarising what utter bollox this all is…
“surrounded by security fencing and floodlights”
It sounds as if they fear that the populace would like to damage the panels. How good would a childhood catapult be, or a slingshot? Or just a young boy hurling stones?
Dm – It sounds as if they fear that the populace would like to damage the panels
How unimaginative of them, to fear minor property damage.
The Duke of Beaufort should be elevated above the populace.
The floodlights are surely to light the solar panels? You can use your own heavily subsidised solar electricity to power the floodlights, then generating more heavily subsidised “solar” electricity. It’s kind of a perpetual motion machine for subsidies generation.
“. . . .the Lime Down Solar Park scheme, which is designed to generate 500 megawatts of clean energy . . . “, which is to say ” . . . will actually produce maybe 25-50 MW of energy during the average hours of daylight and nothing at all at night . . . ”
I absolutely-guarantee, and will back up my assertion with a bottle of the finest bourbon, that this installation will never in its life generate 500 MW of power for as much as a single second of operation. Average power generation over its whole life will likely be less than 5 MW, or about 7,000 hp, the equivalent of a very-small natural-gas power plant, such as those typically installed in remote Alaskan villages and isolated islands.
llater,
llamas
In a lapidary leader The Feudal Times and Reactionary Herald congratulates the Duke for reviving the tradition of robbing the peasantry.
llamas – yes, but as BiW noted, it’ll generate 500 MW of subsidies for Henry John FitzRoy Somerset, 12th Duke of Beaufort, whose family of posh scroungers have been living off the work of necessary and productive people for over a thousand years now.
Net Zero is the feudal system 2.0
Let’s eat the rich and/or make them all fuck off back to Normandy.
@Steve – while I share your contempt for the solar farm project, I think your ire at Henry John Ftang-Ftang De-Dah De-Dah is misplaced. After all, he’s not the one trousering 100% of the subsidy money, nor yet the inflated revenues from the sale of the generated power – that will all go to developers, investors and 101 “consultants”, “advisers”, lawyers and liggers all getting their share of the lovely, lovely, free subsidy money. He’s likely just getting rent, no different than if the land was being farmed. No question it’s a new form of feudalism, with average-Joe consumer being compelled to pay over the odds for ‘green’ energy he didn’t ask for and doesn’t want – but the mere landowner is not the bad guy here. I hold no brief for “His Grace”, but he’s not the one who’s robbing the working class here.
llater,
llamas
I too am wondering why they would need floodlights for a solar installation. There are 10s of thousands of acres of them here in the desert. The only lights are some rather dim status lights on the inverters. People do tend to shoot at the panels, but unless they hit the power lead, the panels continue to produce power. I doubt small boys with rocks could do significant damage.
“I too am wondering why they would need floodlights for a solar installation. ”
They don’t. My farm is surrounded by solar farms and there’s not a single floodlight to be seen. They look ugly and they are pretty useless, but they are not lit up like a Christmas tree at night.
Llamas – After all, he’s not the one trousering 100% of the subsidy money, nor yet the inflated revenues from the sale of the generated power – that will all go to developers, investors and 101 “consultants”, “advisers”, lawyers and liggers all getting their share of the lovely, lovely, free subsidy money.
I’m certainly no reverse snob, I hate the indolent and the chancers equally.
The sea is big enough for all of them to try their luck in the pelagic depths.
Darling it’s better
Down where it’s wetter
Take it from me
It sounds as if they fear that the populace would like to damage the panels. How good would a childhood catapult be, or a slingshot?
As far as home generation for the feed in tariff’s concerned, a well aimed brick over the fence seems to suffice. Since they’re effectively stealing my money via my electricity bill, why shouldn’t I take action to prevent that?
Wasn’t there some recent research about large solar farms changing local weather patterns due to the heat island effect, also saw something about them not being very good for birds, which seems to be a pattern with a lot of this environmental Green energy stuff, very bad for wildlife
@AndyF – “more power for those nice long days in summer when we use very little electricity as we don’t have/need much aircon, …”
We will have a need for it as we will need to charge our cars. The sensible time to do this is in the middle of the day when the sun is strong and we’re at work in an office. The office car park is a lot easier to wire up to charge 100 cars than 100 different homes.
Or we could do the sensible thing and continue to run our cars on recycled free-range organic dinosaurs.
@Charles
Funny how it has to be an office. How electric car enthusiasts never seem to have proper jobs.
@Grist, April 2, 2024 at 8:18 am
There’s a good video on The Conservative Woman website neatly summarising what utter bollox this all is…
…and the link is?
@BniC
large solar farms changing local weather patterns due to the heat island effect, also saw something about them not being very good for birds, which seems to be a pattern with a lot of this environmental Green energy stuff, very bad for wildlife
Yes on all. Also insects aka bird food & polinators. Alas dumb eco-loons blame all their decline on global warming
@bloke in spain – “Funny how it has to be an office”
It can be any place of work where the workers gather together for long periods. So it would include your shift at McDonalds etc.
And the purpose is not to charge all vehicles – merely to spread the load so that some of it occurs when the predictable solar capacity is available.