#solarfarms — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #solarfarms, aggregated by home.social.
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I've been reading similar stories about the benefits of restoring land and age-old water management practices over the past few years. And the results are impressive.
Even more exciting are the more recent reports about the beneficial impact of well designed #SolarFarms on land rehabilitation and agricultural production.
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“Put Solar on Roofs Instead” – Does the Maths Add Up?
Opposition to solar farms often centres on two arguments: that panels should go on roofs and car parks instead, and that agricultural land should be reserved for food production. Both concerns are understandable. Yet they are often discussed without considering the scale of energy demand involved, or the practical challenges of deploying solar elsewhere.
So what would happen if every suitable house, warehouse, school and car park did install solar? Would we still need solar farms?
Solar Farm Output per Acre and per Hectare
For a modern UK solar farm a typical generation range is 130,000-220,000 kWh per acre, with 160,000 kWh per old-fashioned acre per year being a reasonable central estiamte. This figure varies with panel efficiency, layout and latitude, but it is widely used across the industry. A hectare is ~2.5 acres, so a hectare of solar farm produces roughly 400,000 kWh per year.
A standard UK domestic rooftop system is, conservatively, ~4 kWp. These installations generate around 3,800 kWh per year depending on roof orientation, shading and local climate. This gives us a clear comparison point: ~40 houses offsets an acre of solar farm.
It would take just 42 homes with a modest 4 kWp rooftop solar system to produce the same amount of electricity as an acre of solar farm, or ~100 homes for a hectare.
The obvious response is that we should install more rooftop solar before covering fields with panels. There is merit in that argument. In fact, the UK has vast untapped opportunities on homes, warehouses, schools, hospitals and car parks. The question is not whether we should use them, but whether they are sufficient on their own. It seems that anyone concerned enough to protest against solar farms would have already taken their own steps to reduce their energy demands and would be encouraging others to do the same.
Some of these concerns are addressed in this blog: https://ferribysustainability.co.uk/2026/04/26/solar-farms-and-farmland/ but there is clearly more to say to provide context around the debate.
The UK’s Commercial and Public Roof Opportunity
Domestic rooftops matter, but the largest untapped solar resource in the UK is on commercial and public buildings.
Warehouse Roofs
The UK has 350 million m² of warehouse roof space. The best 20% (75 million m²) could host around 15 GW of solar. Industry estimates suggest around half of commercial roofs could safely take solar, once structural and shading constraints are considered.
Public Sector Buildings
Hospitals, schools, universities, leisure centres and government offices have similar potential, with large, accessible roofs that are often already maintained to high standards.
Car parks
“We should put them on car parks”.
Well, yes, though that is really a decision for the car park owners; France has mandated that all most new, large car parks should be built like that and it’s hard to disagree. But how big a difference would that make.
A standard UK bay is around 2.4 m × 4.8 m. A well‑designed canopy can host ~3 to 3.5 kWp per bay, giving annual generation per bay around 3,000 kWh/year. So 330 bays are needed per acre. Contextualising that, you need 8 bays for every household system, or a decent sized supermarket car park to match an acre of solar farm.
The issue is the cost. Ground‑mount is about £700-£900/kWp, while the new car park equivalent is 75% more expensive, about £900-1,400kWp; let’s use 1,225/kWp to keep the maths simpler. Retro-fitting solar canopies to carparks is more expensive again at ~£1,500/kWp. That extra 75%-100% cost makes the electricity people buy more expensive at a time when houses are struggling with the cost of energy.
Two independent studies have quantified UK car‑park solar potential.
- The RenEnergy study identifies 629,000 business‑owned parking bays suitable for solar carports; this corresponds to 1.57 GW of capacity and 1.4 TWh per year of generation .
- Energy Systems Catapult estimates that public‑sector parking facilities could theoretically host up to 24 GW of solar capacity .
The 24 GW is a theoretical upper bound, whereas the 1.57 GW is a practical, surveyed subset of private‑sector sites; real deployment would be constrained by:
- retrofit cost
- structural limits
- shading
- planning constraints
- grid connection availability
- disruption to car‑park operations
If we apply a conservative utilisation factor of 25-40 % of the theoretical public‑sector potential, we get 6-10 GWp realistically deployable giving 6-11 TWh per year of generation. That’s another 2-4% of demand, but it’s high cost electricity.
What were those costs again?
Remembersing that we all have to pay for the electricity produced by these solar projects, let’s just remind ourselves of the real-world installation costs.
Domestic lacks the economies of scale, but massively reduces home-owners bills and emissions; they make the investment (though grants are available) and get most of the benefit.
A Perspective on Land Use
Discussions about solar farms often focus on the loss of agricultural land, but it is worth considering the extraordinary energy density of solar generation. A hectare of solar farm producing around 400,000 kWh of electricity each year can generate enough electricity for around 100 average UK homes. By comparison, while a hectare of even high grade farmland provides food that society clearly needs, the usable energy delivered by modern solar photovoltaics is remarkably high for the area occupied.
This is not an argument that food production is unimportant, nor that every field should become a solar farm. Rather, it helps explain why solar developers are interested in relatively small areas of land. The amount of energy that can be generated from a modest area is far greater than many people realise.
Modern solar farms increasingly allow continued agricultural use through grazing, biodiversity enhancement, land recovery and, in some cases, agrivoltaic systems that combine food and energy production on the same land.
Conclusion: combining the alternatives to solar farms
A reasonable estimate suggests commercial + public roofs + car parks could generate: 76–110 TWh per year
With UK electricity demand at 300-330 TWh per year, this represents 25-33% of current national electricity demand from rooftops and car parks alone. This is a transformative figure, achieved without using additional land and capable of substantially reducing pressure on the electricity network. However, these installations are generally more expensive than ground-mounted solar and require millions of individual investment decisions by householders, businesses and public-sector organisations. Not every roof is suitable for solar, and many sites face structural, shading or planning constraints. Furthermore, UK electricity demand is expected to rise as transport, heating and industry electrify, increasing the need for low-carbon generation. Rooftops, warehouses and car parks should therefore be developed wherever practical, but they are unlikely to remove the need for large-scale solar farms. Instead, they are complementary parts of the same solution.
Solar farms are not an alternative to rooftop solar. They are part of the same solution.
Rooftop solar, commercial roofs and solar car parks should absolutely be pursued. They are valuable opportunities that can reduce pressure on the electricity network, lower bills and avoid the need for some ground-mounted schemes. However, not every roof is suitable for solar. Structural limitations, orientation, shading, lease arrangements and planning restrictions mean that the theoretical potential will never be fully realised. Meanwhile, ground-mounted solar farms can also be designed for optimal orientation, spacing and maintenance, typically resulting in more predictable performance than millions of individually designed rooftop installations, providing more reliable generation and lower ongoing costs.
Use every roof and car park we can find. We’ll still need solar farms.
Furthermore, UK electricity demand is expected to rise as transport, heating and industry increasingly electrify. The need for additional low-carbon generation is therefore likely to grow rather than shrink over time. The real question is not whether rooftop solar can replace solar farms, but how many future solar farms can be avoided by making better use of roofs, warehouses and car parks today.
The challenge is one of scale. Even if we successfully exploit the most promising rooftops and parking facilities, the UK will still need substantial additional renewable generation. Solar farms are not an alternative to rooftop solar. They are part of the same solution.
The real choice is not between solar farms and rooftops. It is whether we are prepared to deploy all available low-carbon technologies quickly enough to meet future electricity demand while reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
Sources
Solar Rooftops: https://www.solarenergyuk.org
Warehousing sector in Government’s Clean Power Action Plan: https://www.ukwa.org.uk/breakthrough-for-warehousing-sector-in-governments-clean-power-action-plan/
Solar Carport vs Solar Farm: Per-kWp Economics Compared: Solar Carport vs Solar Farm: Per-kWp Economics Compared
How Many Solar Panels Fit on a Car Park? How Many Solar Panels Fit on a Car Park? | Solar Canopy UK
Solar car park potential: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/66282d14aaf9d7429d404be3/685e9d29694aea9d4b3f8179_Solar-Carport-White-Paper%20(1).pdf
#climateChange #Energy #Environment #renewableEnergy #SolarFarms #SolarPV #Sustainability -
Examples of the benefits of well designed #SolarFarms on ecosystems and farming:
https://ottawa.place/@dkmackinnon/117105221215268138
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Spiritual Society in Jesus Christ @spiritualfruitwithoutreligion.com@spiritualfruitwithoutreligion.com ·Kroger’s in Circleville employing robots for inventory control.
Technology to manage inventory works hand-in-hand with datacenters and related to solar farms. -
Double harvest: #raspberries and #RenewableEnergy - #FruitLogistica
Excerpts: "Based on current findings, strawberries do not thrive under #SolarPanels, so this combination of crops does not have a promising future. This was the conclusion of a Wageningen University study on fruit cultivation beneath #photovoltaic systems.
Strawberries grown beneath solar panels with 25 to 50 per cent light transmission experienced a significant drop in yield – by 25 to 30 per cent.
The situation was quite different for raspberries, however: under solar panels with 40 per cent light transmission, the harvest yield fell by only five per cent, and the quality of the fruit remained unchanged. At the same time, the panels reduced evaporation and water consumption, protecting the berries from burns and heat peaks.
The scientists also expect positive effects on #WaterConsumption and protection against #ExtremeWeather conditions.
[...]
One clear advantage is that raspberries are currently grown under rain protection films that have to be replaced every five to seven years. This equates to a significant amount of plastic that would no longer be required if solar modules were used instead. And they last at least ten years."
Full article:
https://www.fruitlogistica.com/en/blog/double-harvest-raspberries-and-renewable-energy.html#SolarPunkSunday #SolarFarms #Solar #RenewableEnergy #RenewablesNow #Agrosolar #Agrovoltaics #SolarPanelAgriculture #SolarOnFarms #SolarEnergy
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#Solar and #RenewableEnergy on #Farms - #UMassAmherst
Excerpt: "What Works Under Solar Panels
Sheep and Poultry: #SheepGrazing is well-established at solar sites, they benefit from shade, don't damage equipment, and manage vegetation. #Poultry also do well. Larger animals require reinforced racking; goats and pigs may interfere with wiring.
#Hay and #Pasture: Shading reduces yields, but shade-tolerant species (#orchardgrass, #WhiteClover) maintain reasonable productivity.
#Vegetables: #LeafyGreens, #brassicas, and some #herbs tolerate #PartialShade. Sun-loving crops should be planted between panel rows.
Fruit: Most fruit crops need full sun. Currants and gooseberries are more tolerant. Start small to observe actual impacts." [Raspberries do well in partial sun]."
Read more:
https://www.umass.edu/agriculture-food-environment/clean-energy/solar-renewable-energy-on-farms#SolarPunkSunday #SolarEnergy #SolarFarms #SolarPanelAgriculture #SolarOnFarms #Agrosolar #Agrovoltaics
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#NativeAmericans are building their own #SolarFarms
By Lucy Sherriff, 4th December 2023,
Excerpt: "Having access to – and control over – their own power sources has birthed the term '#EnergySovereignty'. 'We want to have the primary role in the direction of our life,' says John. 'That sovereignty really embodies the spirit of a lot of Native people, it's our guidance in many ways.' "
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231204-native-americans-are-building-their-own-solar-farmsArchived version:
https://archive.ph/cky1C#SolarPunkSunday #SolarPower #NativeAmericans #NativeAmericanNews #EnergyIndependence #Resilience #Sovereignty
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More of this, please...!
Two #Minnesota #SolarFarms seeded #NativeWildflowers under their panels, and 5 years of counting revealed #NativeBees had multiplied twentyfold, then crossed the fence to pollinate the neighbour’s soybeans
by Hugo Rojas, July 14, 2026
Read more:
https://www.ecoportal.net/en/two-minnesota-solar-farms-native-wildflowers/29160/#SolarPunkSunday #GardeningForPolinators #Wildflowers #NativeGrasses #SolarPunk #Solar
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RE: https://social.heise.de/@heiseonlineenglish/116894989220754308
The #FCC has found an elegant way to avoid having to decide on the side effects: it is only responsible for the use of radio frequencies and for ensuring that #SpaceDebris is avoided. Therefore, others must decide on the effects of the mirror – but who, remains unclear. This means the satellite can now launch. 50,000 satellites 🛰️ are intended to reflect light onto Earth at night so that #SolarFarms can produce energy even in the dark
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Every objection to a solar farm counts the cost of building it, down to the acre. None of them count the cost of refusing it.
Say no to a 65-megawatt solar farm in New York and the electricity still gets made anyway — by burning gas instead. This article works out what that costs, using EPA's own health methodology: about one statistical death and a documented rise in respiratory illness over the farm's lifetime.
https://mmalc-x-machina.ghost.io/the-cost-of-doing-nothing-new-york/
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A Floating #solarfarm In The #netherlands Is Having A Big Effect On Underwater Habitats (Many POSITIVE effects!)
Read More: https://www.bgr.com/2202377/floating-solar-farm-netherlands-effect-underwater-habitats/
#solarfarms #solarpower #solar #solarenergy #environment #economy #ecosystems #wildlife #nature #green #climatechange #renewables #renewableenergy #solarpanels #sustainability #animals #energy #electricity
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Every planning objection to a solar farm counts the cost of building it, down to the acre. None of them count the cost of refusing it.
Say no to a 200-acre solar farm and the electricity still gets made — just by burning gas instead. This article works out what that actually costs, using peer-reviewed health figures: several deaths and dozens of serious respiratory illnesses.
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I included both in a write-up:
https://mmalc-x-machina.ghost.io/on-closer-inspection-biodiversity-in-solar-farms/
"The biodiversity and land quality standards applied to solar farm proposals are worth applying [ironically] in practice, solar farms more routinely meet them than the farms they'd displace.
The land most urgently cited as needing protection from solar panels is, in many cases, the land most in need of a period of recovery from what it's currently used for.” -
RE: https://floss.social/@danslerush/116731516805245122
Tagging for #SolarPunkSunday! #SolarFarms + #Bees! A winning combination!
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Democrats are supporting solar farms to power Data Centers which will destroy our environment under the guise of "net zero". We need to stop this. #environment #solarfarms #datacenters
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Start up claims it can collect solar energy in space, convert it to near-infrared, and beam it to large earth based solar farms at night to help power data centers.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/27/meta-inks-deal-for-solar-power-at-night-beamed-from-space/ #Electricity #SolarPower #DataCenters #Infrared #OverviewEnergy #SpaceCraft #Satellites #Space #SolarFarms -
A #startup called #ReflectOrbital wants to launch thousands of mirror-bearing #satellites to reflect sunlight onto Earth at night and "power #solarfarms after sunset, provide lighting for rescue workers and illuminate city streets, among other things"
The company is seeking #FCC approval to test an idea to reflect sunlight to Earth at night, possibly powering #solar panels. Critics say it could be bad for people and wildlife.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/climate/space-mirror-satellite-solar.html
https://archive.ph/NrtU4 -
The original article from Science, published in 2024:
Massive #SolarFarms could provoke rainclouds in the desert
Updrafts from dark solar panels could fuel storms—an alternative to #CloudSeeding
6 Feb 2024
Excerpt: "Branch and his co-authors wanted to see whether solar farms of more realistic sizes could alter the weather. To do so, they turned to a leading weather model, produced by the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, that can account for land surface changes. They modeled the solar farms as nearly black fields that absorbed 95% of the incoming sunlight. When the solar farms exceeded 15 square kilometers, they found, the increased heat absorbed at the surface, contrasted with the relatively reflective sand surrounding them, appreciably increased the updrafts, or convection, that drive cloud formation.
"Just hacking convection wasn’t enough, however: A source of atmospheric moisture is also needed. The model showed that moist, high-altitude winds from the Persian Gulf would suffice. When conditions were ripe, the model found, a 20-square-kilometer solar field would increase rainfall by nearly 600,000 cubic meters—equivalent to 1 centimeter of rain falling across an area the size of Manhattan. If such rainstorms occurred 10 times in one summer, they would provide enough water to support more than 30,000 people for a year.
"The new work makes sense, and it’s 'very stimulating,' Lu says. 'They are targeting a real solution.” One concern, however, is that the simulated solar panels were darker than most manufacturers make them. Some current solar panels are even reflective, designed to cool their surroundings, Lu says.
"Still, Branch is hopeful that the idea could at some point be tested in the real world. Solar farms coming online in China and elsewhere are nearly big enough, he says. If they were built in the right spots, it wouldn’t take much to darken the panels as much as possible, and to plant drought-tolerant darkening #crops, such as jojoba shrubs, between panel rows."
Read more:
https://www.science.org/content/article/massive-solar-farms-could-provoke-rainclouds-desert
