Post - Blog
Is solar a guiding light in the perma-crisis world of energy, biodiversity and food threat?
- 1 year, 11 months ago (2022-12-20)
- Junior Isles
By Mark Rowcroft, Development Director at Exagen
EP Shanghai 2024
Energy costs, changing climate and stripping biodiversity from land are driving up food costs.
Recent research by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has found that combined spike in energy prices and high global temperatures could have increased the retail price of food in the UK by as much as 11.2% in 2022. [1]
Alongside this, the soil in which we grow our food is in desperate need of recovery. Expansive monocrop cultures, intensive grazing and overuse of pesticides, insecticides and fertilisers have punished nature and eroded soil quality, turning some fields into ecological wastelands.
In the UK, over 2 million hectares of soil are at risk of erosion, intensive agriculture has caused arable soils to lose between 40% and 60% of their organic carbon and soil degradation costs the UK £1.2bn per year [2] – all weakening the productivity of our farmland, reducing food production and lowering the nutritional quality of the food on our forks.
This combined loss of biodiversity and soil quality, higher global temperatures and rising energy costs is impacting everything from our ability to absorb more carbon to, how much food we can grow, to how much we pay for the food we can grow – slowly but surely diminishing our ability to feed a growing population.
The rally cry for a lasting solution has been growing stronger.
Tackling the energy crisis and driving down the cost of food production in tandem
Boosting UK renewable energy is a key route to tackling the energy price crisis and climate crisis, with clean solar power the cheapest form of electricity today. UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak’s COP27 speech reaffirmed commitment to boosting clean energy, with the UK targeting 70GW of solar generation by 2035.
Solar doesn’t just support our global renewable energy targets, it is a valuable tool in land management, supporting vital soil-boosting land rest and securing stable incomes for our hardworking farmers during the process.
Currently, only 22% of farmers in England have solar – some own their solar panels outright to help lower the costs of their own energy consumption, but many more host solar farms owned by a developer that both helps farmers with bill security but also gives them a diverse and stable source of income that can support and sustain their wider farming business.
The 78% of farmers without solar risk more exposure to power price volatility, ultimately contributing to the rising costs of food production. In fact, if the 78% of farmers without solar were to adopt it, over the next two years, their energy savings and the potential revenue they could generate from the installation could be up to £1bn. [3]
Government calculations also showed that farming and other businesses paid 98% more for gas in the second quarter of 2022 than in the same period the previous year. Tackling the rising cost of energy and delivering cheaper, cleaner power will help farmers reduce food production costs by protecting them from the rising costs of fossil fuels and help manage the rising retail cost of groceries.
Boosting biodiversity and improving farmland in the long-term
When it comes to the biodiversity support, solar farms disturb less than 2% of the land when installed, leaving the remaining land free for restoration initiatives.
Far from industrialising our land – as some opponents would proclaim – solar farms are proven to boost biodiversity, bringing it back to nature. When soil is given the opportunity to rest and recover, it can start to restore the nutrients that were lost to industrialised farming.
By introducing wild and native plant species as part of a project, solar farms can accelerate this process and, through habitat restoration along site borders and around panels, create new ecosystems for birds and pollinators. All of which boosts biodiversity in previous barren land – ultimately restoring soil quality for future farming.
Solar farms have a lifespan of up to 40 years. This may seem like a long time, but for fields that have stood for centuries in land that has been farmed for generations, it is a mere moment: time enough to help restore the soil, but not a significant disruption to the land’s lifespan. And unlike other forms of renewable energy, solar does not need solid foundations – it is quick to erect, quick to dismantle and can leave no trace.
Research from the University of Leicester has shown that managing solar sites to grow wildflowers rather than turf can quadruple bee numbers. And a solar farm in Devon has increased local bird and invertebrate species in the six years since installation by carefully restoring habitats such as rough grassland and hedgerows; the farm now also serves as a site for educational visits for schools for renewables workshops.
Deploying solar and delivering a better and more holistic food and energy system
The 11.2% increase in food costs translates into an additional £33.90 increase in the cost of an average household monthly grocery bill (a £406.82 annual bill increase). If energy prices continue to rise, so too will this number until whole sections of the population are priced out of accessing nutritious food.
At the same time, squeezing the nutrients from our soil will leave nothing left for future generations of farmers.
Land regeneration is as vital to securing a low-carbon future as decarbonising our energy systems. Solar farms, when deployed appropriately can help nurture biodiversity and embed land with nutrients that will one day support future farming systems and populations. At the same time, delivering cheaper, cleaner energy will protect both the farmers and the wider UK population from energy price spikes caused by fossil fuels and enable widespread decarbonisation – helping alleviate the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
It is now up to renewable developers and farmers to build relationships that help deploy biodiversity-boosting solar farms that support agriculture and the natural environment and deliver a cleaner, cheaper future for everyone.
[1] https://ca1-eci.edcdn.com/food-prices-ECIU-21Oct2022.pdf?v=1666344108
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-environment/summary-state-of-the-environment-soil
[3] https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/farmers_without_solar_missing_out_on_up_to_1_billion_over_two_year_says_eci