UK Government Remains Firm on Not Using Quality Land for PV

The UK government has stood its ground on prioritising using the highest quality land for food production rather than developing PV power plants, according to Energy Voice, cited by Bloomberg.

• The government has decided that in the face of increased global instability, ‘Best and Most Versatile’ (BMV) land should be prioritised for food production.
  
• Meanwhile, solar developers should instead build new capacity on “brownfield land, contaminated land, industrial land and lower-quality agricultural land”
• This has led to some pushback from the solar industry, though overall it does not appear overly concerned over the impact on the industry.
• Solar Energy UK noted that the only “significant” change announced by Coutinho was related to the perceived accuracy of soil quality grading.