Station Road Solar Farm

There is an urgent need to generate energy from new, affordable, and environmentally friendly sources, and solar power emerges as the most cost-effective and rapidly deployable among all energy sources. Currently, its cost is one-ninth that of gas and less than one-third of nuclear energy.

Solar power is already yielding tangible results. For instance, during the period from June to August in 2022, solar power frequently contributed up to 25% of the UK's daytime electricity (according to the National Grid ESO carbon app).

Even in winter, solar panel technology is still effective; at one point in February 2022, solar was providing more than 20% of the UK’s electricity (According to the National Grid).

Solar power is a core part of the Governments’ Net Zero target, and it intends to more than triple solar power capacity by 2030.

Achieving this objective requires the deployment of larger scale solar farms as well as on the rooftops of industrial and residential buildings.

The solar farm is a temporary development and will not change the land classification.

The UK Food Security Report (2021) found that “the biggest medium to long term risk to the UK’s domestic production comes from climate change and other environmental pressures like soil degradation, water quality and biodiversity”.

Solar farms currently account for 0.08% of total land use in the UK (Solar Energy UK 2022). The Government targets for a fivefold increase in solar would result in 0.3% of the UK land area being used by solar (Carbon Brief, 2022). This is the equivalent to around half of the space used by golf courses.

It typically takes 6-9 months to build a solar farm of this size. Site working would typically be Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings only.

A construction traffic management plan will be conditioned and subject to detailed liaison with the highways department post planning. Once the solar farm is constructed, monitoring will be carried out remotely by PACE, minimising visits by maintenance staff.

We are committed to significant net biodiversity gain at Station Road through the creation of new habitats to support local wildlife. Existing hedgerows will be strengthened, and new hedgerows will be planted to improve habitat connectivity across the site. We will set aside a significant proportion of the land for Biodiversity Enhancement Areas which will provide wildflower meadows for pollinators and grassland habitats to support mammals, birds, and invertebrates. Further ecological enhancement measures such as bird boxes and bat boxes will be placed within the site to encourage those populations to prosper.