Panic in Wales over ugly giant solar farms – ‘tourists won’t want to come here’

In rural Wales, communities are grappling with the devastating impact of solar farms, which they fear could ruin tourism, threaten food production and destroy hugely important wildlife reserves, all in the name of climate change.

Labour has set ambitious targets to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – while reducing emissions by 68% by 2030 –and it has pledged to treble the UK’s ability to produce solar power over the next five years. However, as wildlife experts battle with the Government to prevent the developments, they point out you cannot destroy nature to conserve nature. At the sprawling green landscape of Gwent Levels near Newport, wildlife experts tell us almost a fifth of its eight Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) could be under threat if all planned solar developments go ahead.

“It’s an irreplaceable landscape. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. It can’t be brought back because of the history that’s developed it,” says Gemma Bode, head of nature recovery at Gwent Wildlife Trust.

“Wildlife can be really resilient and it can come back, but it can’t come back from this,” she adds. The proposed Rush Wall Solar Park is earmarked for a historically important site where the drainage network was built by the Romans.

Gemma says nationally important species at risk include water voles, water beetles, dragonflies, and the rare shrill carder bees, which are present in only a handful of sites across the UK.

It’s not the first time the site has come under attack. Campaigners previously prevented the M4 motorway from crossing through the site, and some 6,000 people signed a petition to halt significant developments on the Gwent Levels when the Llanwern Solar Farm was built in 2020.

Gemma points to Llanwern as evidence of the damage, where she says lapwing birds haven’t returned, because they can’t nest under the panels, shrill carder bee populations saw a “dramatic decrease”, and bat populations have “crashed”.

“We have to do everything we can to maintain our pollinators,” she says, highlighting the millions of pounds they contribute to the economy by pollinating food.

“We’re on a protected landscape, protected designation, so there should be no planning of this scale going on,” she says. “There shouldn’t be a discussion over it. That’s what the protection is for.”

Now, they are calling for a moratorium on all developments and clarification of government wording. They say a change to planning policy wording, which states there should be no development on SSSIs unless it is a “wholly exceptional circumstance”, makes the rules ambiguous.

“We thought that that was going to protect places, special places like this. However, what we found with the most recent hearings is the developers are saying that this is wholly exceptional because of climate change,” adds Debbie Stenner, head of fundraising and communications for the trust.

“Welsh Government have declared a climate emergency and a nature emergency. The two are conjoined, they’re not separate.”

Gemma adds: “There’s a need for renewables, but not where there’s such sensitive wetland wildlife of national importance.”

It is also an issue in Anglesey, where Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth says he is a “big fan of solar”. However, he notes the problem is the “sheer scale” of the developments, which should be “nothing close to this”.

He explains: “We can do it in much more innovative ways that don’t have the deep, deep impact that this would have on our community.”

An Alaw Môn development would see panels installed across 660 acres of land in the centre of Anglesey, while developments at Maen Hir are “absolutely enormous”, and would be almost five times that of the biggest active solar farm in the UK, Cleve Hill.

Lighsource bp said the project will deliver “economic, community, and environmental benefits,” however, ap Iorwerth says the community will get almost nothing in return in the form of jobs.

Ap Iorwerthr highlights that it is “particularly galling” losing farmland in a place that was the breadbasket of Wales, and he also worries about the panels creating a blot on the rolling landscape, a draw for the two million tourists visiting Anglesey each year.

Due to the landscape, you can see the panels for “miles and miles”. He says it goes “way beyond nimbyism”, as some villages are “essentially surrounded”.

And it’s not just solar panels inflaming the debate. The red squirrel habitat in Bryn Cadwgan, part of the Cambrian Mountains in mid-Wales, is at risk from wind turbines.

A proposed energy park development threatens to “destroy at least 40 hectares of forest”, according to the Wildlife Trust of South West Wales, which has one of the three remaining red squirrel populations in Wales.

“It’s actually really quite a sad time to work in conservation. So many of our native species have been driven to extinction already,” says senior conservation officer, Adam Dawson.

The “shy” creatures are at risk of losing their habitat because an access track would run right through the forest and create a huge amount of open space, which opens them up to a host of issues.

Adam explains: “Any time that they’re not in a thick canopy, they feel very stressed, and that stress affects their ability to feed [and reproduce].”

It also makes them much more vulnerable to predators, and drives them to areas where they become vulnerable to squirrel pox, which can be transferred without contact.

“They develop big sores and lesions on their face and around their neck and they essentially die a very slow and lingering death from dehydration and starvation, because they’re no longer able to feed at all. It’s really awful to see,” Adam adds.

He points out it could be damaging to “so many endangered species,” like water voles and bats, and bird species.

“The Wildlife Trust completely supports the development of renewable energy, but only in the right locations where it’s appropriate,” he says. “But as far as we’re concerned, it’s just the wrong development in the wrong place.”

He is calling on Welsh government to take a new approach, to take endangered species into account at the beginning of the process, not down the line once they’ve already invested in a particular site.

Regular visitors at the site in Gwent, Stephanie and Roderick White, say it is a “crazy idea” to cover the area in solar panels. Originally from Swansea, they started coming to the “precious” levels in lockdown.

“During COVID, we found the nature reserve, and since then we’ve taken to coming here to break the journey and to have a real experience of an amazing water environment,” enthuses Stephanie. “These channels have got an amazing variety of wildlife.

“It would take away the wildness of this area, which is so precious to people like ourselves, who come from an urban environment, to come down here and be able to see what we’ve got.”

She points to other solutions, such as putting panels on top of car parks. It’s a call that resonates with all parties: to build on existing infrastructure, like industrial warehouses. Adam Dawson says it seems “really obvious” and would be a “really easy win”.

“I’m sitting in a building where the roof is entirely panelled with solar panels. If you’re going to put in solar, then don’t displace biodiversity,” he adds.

In response, a spokesperson for the Welsh Government says: “The planning system has a key responsibility in securing positive biodiversity outcomes and responding to climate change. Future Wales and Planning Policy Wales seek to respond to both the climate and nature emergencies.”

A spokesperson for Newport City Council adds with regard to the Gwent Levels plans: “This development was classed as a Development of National Significance under planning regulations and was granted with conditions by the relevant Welsh government minister. However, councils are responsible for dealing with any non-compliance of any conditions that are imposed.

“It remains the developer’s responsibility to implement a development in accordance with the consent. While councils across Wales do not have the resources to actively monitor development sites per se, they do respond when issues are raised and investigate breaches. Enforcement action is taken when all other options have failed.”

The Express has contacted Lighthouse bp for comment.