North/South split on UK RE

Cornwall is the UK’s top county for installed solar capacity, while the East Riding of Yorkshire tops onshore wind, according to the Green Alliance.

The think tank’s analysis shows the north of England performing better on onshore wind with the south doing better on solar.

The top 10 solar counties are all in the south of country, with Devon in second place followed by Hampshire, Wiltshire, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Somerset and Dorset respectively.

Six of the top 10 onshore wind counties are in the north of the UK, three in Wales and one in the south.

Lincolnshire was placed second, followed by Cambridgeshire, Lancashire, Dyfed, Northumberland, Mid-Glamorgan, Durham, Cumbria and Powys, respectively.

Green Alliance senior policy adviser Amy Mount said: “The distribution of onshore wind and solar revealed by the league tables show that counties are playing to their strengths.

“What this shows is that, while funding for renewables is constrained by national policy, developers are tending to favour the sites that maximise their technology’s potential.

“It also means these are the places which will suffer the drop in construction activity due to the current block on subsidy free wind and solar.

“But solar panels generate power even on cloudy days and, as a blustery island nation, there are many spots right across the country capable of generating a substantial amount of energy from wind.

“Yet, in the March Budget, the government did nothing to clarify the future of these vital technologies.”

Image: sheep graze at solar plant in Devon (Lightsource)