It is unclear whether Ministers will maintain the current position whereby grade 3b agricultural land is available for ground-mounted solar installations. We recognise that the Government must balance the needs of energy security with biodiversity protection and food production. Nevertheless, moves to limit the land available for solar installations will make it harder to achieve the Government’s stated ambition in the British Energy Security Strategy to increase solar capacity to 70GW by 203...

It is unclear whether Ministers will maintain the current position whereby grade 3b agricultural land is available for ground-mounted solar installations. We recognise that the Government must balance the needs of energy security with biodiversity protection and food production. Nevertheless, moves to limit the land available for solar installations will make it harder to achieve the Government’s stated ambition in the British Energy Security Strategy to increase solar capacity to 70GW by 2035. We recommend that the Government set out, in its response to this report, its assessment of the likely impact that reducing the classes of land availa Type: recommendation | Number: 20 | Response status: not_addressed Government response: Our approach to achieving higher standards remains technology-neutral, to provide developers with the flexibility to innovate and choose the most appropriate and cost-effective solutions for their site. However, renewable energy, such as that generated from s