I want to find out whether the UK's local authorities could use renewable energy as a means of generating alternative income and protect vital public services. 

To start my investigation, I'm in North West England to talk to Councillor Janet Henshaw of Warrington Borough Council. The council's strategy involves investing in solar farms and the cash generated is not only being used to fund green investment, but also to help compensate for the cuts that have taken place since 2010 in UK central government funding.

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In this episode I meet Alan Woods, the Director of Strategy and Business Development at Rolls Royce SMR which stands for Small Modular Reactors.

Rolls Royce plans to use tried and tested small nuclear reactor technology as the heart of a factory built series of standardised modules which can be transported by road and then rapidly assembled into complete working power stations. It's an approach in sharp contrast to existing nuclear plants which are built on site and face delays due to weather and many other variables which can all contribute to rising costs.

If it gets government approval, Rolls Royce will build at least one SMR a year, each costing £2.8 billion and able to generate 470 Megawatts of electricity, enough to power a city the size of Leeds, or over 60,000 electric cars.

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The price of renewable energy has plunged dramatically in recent years. Now the cost of a unit of electricity produced by renewables is comparable to or even cheaper than that produced by coal, gas or nuclear.

It all suggests a rapid transition to green energy and the demise of fossil fuels. Right?

Wrong, says Professor Brett Christophers of Uppsala University in Sweden! In this episode we visit Professor Chrstophers, delve more deeply into his view that while renewables appear to be cheap and getting cheaper, they may not actually be profitable, and ask what the implications are for using this technology to address climate change.

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In this opening episode of Road2Zero we take a look at one major consequence of decarbonising the electricity supply - the growing number of planning applications to construct utility scale solar farms in the countryside.

A typical example of this is Woolpots Solar Farm which is located in North Yorkshire next to the North York Moors National Park and the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Following that we look into two of the issues raised by such developments. Firstly, are there better places to locate solar power facilities than on productive agricultural land?

We talk to Professor Mark Barrett of University College London. Secondly, is there a better process for selecting sites for solar farms which averts conflict between developers, local communities and farmers? We talk to Chris Stratton OBE, an experienced land use planner.

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