Farm leaders in Scotland have backed demands for policymakers to abolish planning barriers that restrict solar installations on agricultural buildings.
The calls were made in a joint letter to the Scottish government by Solar Energy Scotland, and other firms and organisations supporting renewable power sources.
The businesses, including NFU Scotland, want changes to tax and planning rules that could increase renewable energy production and help farms cut costs.
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The letter pressed finance and economy minister Kate Forbes to allow larger-capacity rooftop installations to be made under permitted development rights (PDRs).
These rights allow changes to be made to buildings without having to make costly and time-consuming planning applications. But existing Scottish rules only allow panels of up to 50kW to be dealt with under PDRs.
Instead, the group wants parity with England’s farms, where a more a generous cap of 1MW applies before planning applications have to be lodged.
Tax changes
The second key change sought by the group is to allow Scottish solar installation full non-domestic rates relief for the first 12 years.
This would lead to additional tax revenue over the remainder of the lifetime of solar panels on commercial properties, the letter claimed.
It pointed out that the Westminster government has recently handed companies in England a 12-year exemption from equivalent tax measures.
The signatories also want Scottish ministers to retain payments under the Basic Payment Scheme for ground-mounted solar farms, where the land is used for sheep grazing or biodiversity enhancement.
Solar Energy Scotland calculated the combined changes would see installations capable of generating 6GW of extra power – a major step towards the UK’s 70GW target by 2035. It could also create more than 8,500 jobs, the company claimed.
NFU Scotland’s legal and technical committee chairman, Alasdair Macnab, said: “Our members, like everyone else, face rising costs, including energy costs, in particular.
“At the same time, they recognise that every single sector in Scotland must do what it can to decarbonise. Solar panels – unobtrusive, uncontroversial, cost-effective – have to be a big part of our answer to both problems.”
Holyrood debate
The letter was delivered as a finalised version of long-term planning rules were tabled for discussion by MSPs in Holyrood. The revised National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) will set out policies against which planning applications will be assessed for the next decade.
It proposes that Scotland’s planning system is fundamental to achieving net-zero ambitions and will set out the role planning should play in addressing climate change, enabling nature recovery and creating places where people, communities and businesses flourish.
