From Richard Emmett, Blacksburg, Virginia, US
You report that the boom in solar energy around the world has led to panels being installed on prime agricultural land. This is bad news, and there are many more sensible alternatives: most obviously barren desert land that can’t grow food (6 July, p 10).
Another option would be the roofs of buildings, such as homes and barns built to face the sun – this is very common in Germany. Best of all would be building on covered car parks, so that cars can be slowly charged directly during the day when the sun is shining. Indeed, France is requiring this for new car parks over a certain size. Sacrificing prime agricultural land should be the last resort.
