Almost seven times more people would rather live next door to a solar farm than a shale gas operation, a new survey reveals. Indeed they would rather live next to Nuclear !
A YouGov poll of 2,068 people for the Solar Trade Association (STA) found 40 per cent said they would prefer a solar farm to be located nearby when asked to choose between four types of energy development.
Meanwhile, 25 per cent chose a wind farm, 10 per cent opted for a nuclear power plant and just six per cent opted for shale gas fracking and boreholes.
This figure reflects the consistent unpopularity of shale developments among the public. A separate YouGov poll for the Sunday Times found only 40 per cent of people approve of public financial support for the technology and almost half thought it was bad for the environment.
This week, protests at an exploratory drilling site in Balcombe resulted in a number of arrests, including that of Green Party MP Caroline Lucas.