Alicia Kearns, MP for Melton and Rutland, 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:

This week I called for the Government to bring greater fairness to compensation schemes for solar developments in our communities. The wind power sector provide compensation per annum for the duration of a wind scheme, however the solar industry has yet to reach an agreement. pic.twitter.com/SvP5s6exj0

— Alicia Kearns MP (@aliciakearns) December 2, 2023

she has also brought together 29 MPs in a joint letter to Chris Hewett, Chief Executive of Solar Energy UK:

We write to raise the approach to community benefit schemes and compensation being taken by the Solar industry in the UK. We would ask that the solar industry take the initiative in creating a mandatory compensation standard to ensure that impacted communities are not subject to the whims of individual developers.

Without a whole industry standard, communities face an environment in which solar developers can offer as little as possible in terms of community compensation. This framework provides little in the way of support to residents who are affected by the planning, construction, and maintenance of large solar arrays in their local areas, even for projects with a 60+ year life spans built on grade 1,2 and 3 high quality farmland, which shouldn't be built on at all.

There is currently no industry agreement on the type of compensation offered to communities, with some developers opting for one-time payments while others look at annual contributions. This means some communities are being offered a small one-off payment in total compensation, while the development that has fundamentally altered their community will generate millions in annual profits. Under this arrangement everybody loses, as nothing is done to alleviate the concerns of communities impacted by solar developments, and opposition mounts even when the construction of well thought out solar plants is proposed.

Solar power projects cannot be developed without appropriate buy-in from the communities most impacted by their construction. Adopting an industry-wide standard, in much the same way as the renewable wind sector has, would greatly boost local confidence in solar projects, and ensure that residents are adequately compensated for what remains a significant disruption to their neighbourhoods and lives.

We sincerely hope that the effort to create a standard in the solar industry for community compensation can be led by industry but are willing to consider legislative options should it be necessary.

Mallard Pass Solar Farm is proposed for land on the Rutland-Stamford border and would be the largest in the country. Image credit: RCC / Windel / LDRS.

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."

Alicia has been campaigning against Mallard Pass, demonstrating how high the proposed solar panels would be next to local landmarks. Image credit: Alicia Kearns MP.