MP wants floating solar panels on UK reservoirs

An MP is calling for more solar panels to be located on the UK's reservoirs.

Lincoln Jopp, the Conservative MP for Spelthorne in Surrey, claimed in the Commons that putting the panels on just 15% of the country's reservoirs would double the UK's solar energy production.

As well as avoiding the use of arable land, he said, they would be more efficient due to the cooling effect of water.

However, while agreeing the idea has "potential", the government said it had not backed any floating solar bids because the cost of the floating structures and underwater cabling make it 10 to 15% per cent more expensive than ground mounted panels.

The technology is already being used in India, China, the USA and Turkey, and is being used in Surrey at the Queen Elizabeth the Second Reservoir in Walton-on-Thames.

Mr Jopp said expanding the idea would add 16gw to electricity generation, creating 80,000 jobs in the construction phase and 8,000 long term maintenance jobs.

Mr Jopp told BBC Radio Surrey: "If we were to onshore the floating element and the anchorage element that would reduce the cost and produce some great jobs.

"Because the government haven't been seen to be behind it, like they have for example offshore wind, then investors are reticent, because they want to know there's going to be a ready market for the electricity.

"All of that visual vandalism of putting solar panels all over this beautiful country of ours on greenfield sites and agricultural land, it removes that problem, too."

In the Commons, energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh told Mr Jopp: "Although we are very keen to encourage this technology and encourage the sector to grow, there is more that needs to be done in order to make them cost effective."

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