Alicia Kearns MP has brought together 29 MPs in a joint letter to Solar Energy UK calling on the solar industry to introduce standardised community compensation packages.
The wind industry already has set compensation offerings of £5,000 per MW, per year of operation, or equivalent in-kind benefits. This ensures that affected residents are fairly compensated when onshore wind farms are built in and around their communities.
The solar industry currently has no industry standard, with developers free to offer as little compensation as they like to affected residents and communities. The current flaws in the system are evident with the proposed Mallard Pass solar plant in Rutland, with residents potentially facing a low, one-off compensation offer from the developers Canadian Solar and Windel Energy.
Alicia raised this in the House of Commons here.
With UK solar projected to produce 70 Gigawatts of energy by 2035, an increasing amount of land is being developed with solar plants. A solar industry compensation standard would ensure that residents facing huge solar developments in their communities can at least expect a fair level of compensation.
The Government has engaged with concerned MPs on this issue and has also written to Solar Energy UK asking them to get their house in order and swiftly introduce an industry standard compensation offering.
Alicia Kearns, Member of Parliament for Rutland and Melton, said:
“As more and more solar plants are proposed in Rutland, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire it is vital that communities can expect fair compensation from solar developers, some of whom are projected to make millions of pounds in annual revenues.”
“As the industry body for solar, Solar Energy UK should have been proactive in introducing a standardised community compensation offering for the solar industry. Whilst it is disappointing that Parliament and the Government have had to shake the industry into action, I hope we now see a fair community compensation standard sooner rather than later.”
“It is deeply unfair that some developers currently offer small, one-off payments to communities facing the imposition of multi-thousand acre developments that will fundamentally alter the landscape around them. We need the solar industry to introduce standardised monetary amounts per megawatt paid out on an annual basis, as is already the case for onshore wind farms.”
