U.K. Energy Minister Greg Barker is expected to announce his plans of installing about four million solar panels on government land and buildings. As The Daily Telegraph reported, this new initiative would try to generate 1GW electricity by solar panels on the “government estate.”
This solar panel installation plan is involved in the New Year disclose plans and is interpreted as the minister’s “personal ambition.” Barker has been aiming to push U.K. as a leader in renewable energy generation and he plans to raise the power generated by solar source up to 22GW in the country by 2020. Regarding to this year’s solar panel installation plan, it probably includes huge solar farms on Government land as well as panels on thousands of public buildings and the surface might be as wide as 3,400 football pitches.
“Solar farms have an important role to play delivering green power at low cost. Done well solar farms can also actively help boost British biodiversity by providing wildlife sancturies," Leonie Greene of the Solar Trade Association said to PennEnergy. "Only 5 percent of the land a solar farm is on is taken up with fixings, so 95 percent of the land remains available to other uses. The solar industry is moving to make sure much of that land is used to help our threatened flora and fauna."