Mission Statement: to assist the integration of foreign residents living in Spain
By John Smith •
Updated: 15 Nov 2024 • 13:46 • 1 minute read
Not every young person in Ireland who comes from a farming family wants to inherit and carry on the farming tradition which has some positive and several negative connotations.
A huge amount of Ireland is put over to agricultural activity and the less farming there is, the more likelihood there is that more food has to be imported.
Many farmers appear to be planning to add solar power to their land for the future
On the plus side however grass can be converted to biofuel and large areas of open land are ideal for solar energy to be collected especially as there are currently a large number of grants available which make it attractive to create a solar park.
Once the park is installed, those owning it will be able to benefit from obtaining cheap electricity, some of which can be sold to the National Grid.
Wind power is no longer popular with the private sector due to cost, need to obtain complicated planning permission and there is now the fear that once obsolete the sails in particular may be impossible to breakdown and will become landfill.
Solar power becoming more attractive than wind power
Solar panels and ongoing farming aren’t mutually exclusive as sheep in particular have been seen to be quite content to graze in the shade of the panels ensuring that the land doesn’t become overgrown.
It seems that that solar panel installation is becoming increasingly important in terms of succession planning on family farms, be it for sustainability reasons or to put the land to another use.
Not all politicians support farmers who introduce solar power to their land
Current Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) Micheál Martin isn’t so pleased with this ‘marriage’ and was quoted in the Irish media recently saying “40 shades of green being replaced with 40 shades of grey”.
So whilst the whole of Europe wants to see new sources of renewable energy being introduced, there is still plenty of disagreement about how best to do this.
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Married to Ophelia in Gibraltar in 1978, John has spent much of his life travelling on security print and minting business and visited every continent except Antarctica.
Having retired several years ago, the couple moved to their house in Estepona and John became a regular news writer for the EWN Media Group taking particular interest in Finance, Gibraltar and Costa del Sol Social Scene.
Currently he is acting as Editorial Consultant for the paper helping to shape its future development.
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