The green environmental lobby has for a long time promoted the reuse of ‘brownfield’ sites for new housing over the wanton destruction of unspoilt countryside. Yet the renewable energy movement seems largely to have ignored this ‘brownfield’ factor in favour of destroying large swathes of countryside with wind turbines and transmission pylons.

At Cadw Cambria, we believe that the Welsh Government should be actively investigating the use of brownfield opportunities.

Wales alone has 200 million square feet of factory roof space.  That equates to 3,400,000 solar panels. Installing solar panels on just 17% of the available factory roof space in Wales could provide all our current electrical needs.

In addition, Wales alone has 35 million square feet of office roof space and almost 88 million square feet of retail roof space for solar panels. That’s space for another 32 million solar panels generating up to 16GW of electricity.

We have a new song video to highlight this ‘Brownfield’ renewable energy opportunity