{"id":565586,"date":"2026-05-04T12:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T12:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/565586\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T12:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T12:12:08","slug":"village-is-island-amidst-solar-panels-as-rk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/565586\/","title":{"rendered":"Village is &#8216;island&#8217; amidst solar panels as rk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Reform UK said: &#8220;For far too long, successive Plaid-backed Labour governments have ignored the views of local residents and have obsessed over net zero targets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Reform will ban new solar farms, using ministerial call-in powers to end the damage being done to communities and our productive arable land.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Plaid Cymru said renewable projects were key to making Wales an &#8220;energy independent nation&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We will require greater community-ownership of energy projects as a key condition of consent, and ensure business rates on wind and solar farms are retained in the local authorities in which they are located, whilst also protecting high-quality agricultural land from being lost to large-scale, excessive solar developments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We are serious about the green transition, but it can only be achieved by bringing communities along with us &#8211; by ensuring they see more of the benefits from renewables, and their fair share of the profits too.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Welsh Conservatives promised to put a moratorium on &#8220;industrial-scale solar developments to protect the countryside from inappropriate large-scale projects&#8221;, while ensuring future infrastructure was better planned and supported by communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We recognise the important role renewable energy can play, yet too often, local people feel decisions are being imposed on them without proper consideration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Welsh Labour said clean, homegrown energy would bring skilled jobs and lower energy bills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We set a legally binding target of 100% of electricity demand to be met by renewable sources by 2035.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We will ensure that renewable energy projects benefit the communities that host them, and that they work to protect Wales from unstable global energy markets.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Welsh Liberal Democrats said: &#8220;Wales needs clean energy, but right now it feels like a free for all, with the Welsh government failing to plan and leaving communities boxed in while projects are waved through.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The party said there was a better way, focusing on offshore wind and tidal power, driving rooftop solar energy on homes and buildings, and &#8220;working with communities, not against them&#8221;, while backing farmers to generate their own energy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Wales Green Party said called for the acceleration of the transition to renewables and &#8220;clean, safe, resilient and community-owned energy system that tackles climate change while reducing fuel poverty and creating skilled jobs across Wales&#8221;. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform UK said: &#8220;For far too long, successive Plaid-backed Labour governments have ignored the views of local residents&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-565586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}