Articles by Rachel Cunliffe

Technology

How to defeat Reform on renewables

When I was 14 my sister and I had an argument about who would get to read the latest Harry Potter book first. My father handled it like any father would: he auctioned off the “reading first” rights. The result was that I paid my sister a small fee (£4, I believe) to get first dibs on the book. The argument evaporated. I thought about this when I read about the protests against the Tillbridge Solar project in Lincolnshire – not just because our ability to turn sunlight into power is basically indistinguishable from magic, but because of incentives. This would be the biggest scheme of its kind; the government reckons the Tillbridge project will provide 500 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power 300,000 homes, as well as supporting 1,250 jobs. Not everyone is impressed, and chief among the sceptics are representatives of Reform UK. Sean Matthews, leader of the Reform-led Lincolnshire County Council, has called the plans “vandalism of our beautiful county” and vowed to “lie down in front of bulldozers” (à la Boris Johnson’s Heathrow third runway pledge). Inevitably, the weekend after Tillbridge got the green light, protesters gathered to make their opposition known. Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader and MP for the Lincolnshire seat of Boston and Skegness, turned up too. He insisted “no one in Lincolnshire wants all of these solar panels”. That’s an interesting assertion. According to Reform’s own press release, the protesters numbered in the “hundreds”. The population of Lincolnshire county is roughly 800,000. Those turning up to the protest may have felt very strongly about not wanting a solar farm in their county, but being noisy doesn’t necessarily equate to speaking for the majority. But let’s assume Tice is right and most people in Lincolnshire don’t want Tillbridge to go ahead. You can see their objections. It is estimated that the project will take at least two years to build, and anyone who has followed any infrastructure endeavour will know to view that sceptically. Few of us would choose to spend years living next to a enormous construction zone, with all the traffic and noise that entails. No doubt some views will be spoiled. Some countryside will be industrialised. The developers have promised to plant trees and vegetation to compensate, but it’s still a lot to ask locals without offering them anything in return. Which is where the Harry Potter auction comes in. Inconvenience, whether waiting to read a book or living by a building site, has a cost. What would recognising that cost look like? The developers say they are investigating “a community benefit fund”, whereby money is allocated to local groups to enhance the area. I asked how much such a fund might be worth and what it could be spent on; so far they haven’t got back to me. Might there be a simpler way? Solar is the cheapest form of power available, and the whole point of projects like Tillbridge is to bring down the cost of energy. When I visited Lincolnshire ahead of the local elections in May, I heard repeatedly how worried people were about the cost of living. Right now, there isn’t a clear link between their energy bills coming down and a huge solar farm being built on their doorstep. But there could be. Zonal pricing, advocated by some industry experts such as Greg Jackson, the CEO of Octopus, is the idea that prices should vary depending on what it costs to generate energy in an area. Not everyone supports this, worrying it would be too complicated or prevent some renewable projects going ahead. There’s also the charge it would create a “postcode lottery” for energy bills. But I think there’s already a net zero postcode lottery at play in whether or not your home is next to a big infrastructure project. It’s not wrong for locals to want to be compensated for the disruption they might suffer, for the sake of cheaper, cleaner, more reliable power for everyone. If Lincolnshire residents knew Tillbridge would mean money off their bills specifically, Reform UK might find they were on their own for the next protest.