In England, in the county of Lincolnshire, the installation of pylons electrifies the countryside

David Rains, Sue Harrison, Andrew Malkin, and Pam Regan sit over coffee and biscuits in the dining room of Jenny and Ian Pennington's farmhouse in Weston Marsh, near the English town of Spalding. In this part of the very rural county of Lincolnshire, the fields are vast, the earth is very brown, the landscape so flat that the view almost extends to the North Sea. The conversation is animated, the voices are vehement and anxious. All these neighbors are facing the historic expansion of Britain's national electricity transmission grid, encouraged by the Labour government, which has set itself the highly ambitious target of decarbonizing 100% of the energy consumed in the United Kingdom by 2030.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband—a close associate of Prime Minister Keir Starmer—has embarked on a race against time to transport electricity generated by vast wind farms in the North Sea, off the Scottish coast, to the more densely populated south of England. As part of this Great Grid Upgrade, 17 huge projects to densify the electricity network are under consideration. At the cost of reducing arable land and sacrificing landscapes, many critics lament.

You have 87.85% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.