West Berkshire Council submits 30 year solar farm plan for 57,000 panels

Plans have now been formally submitted for a solar farm at Grazeley.

West Berkshire Council wants to put more than 57,000 panels on a 75 acre field and is applying to itself for permission to build and run the facility for 30 years.

The council claims the scheme will result in a reduction of carbon emissions associated with energy generation.

It says it will equate to the removal of around 1,934 family cars from the roads, and that it would provide the energy equivalent needs of around 7,500 homes.

Also included in the plans are ten battery storage systems.

Access to the site is via an existing farm access on Cross Lane.

The planning application says the agricultural value of the land has been assessed, finding it is not the "best and most versatile" land for which local and national policies seek to protect.

There are two other solar farms near to the proposed site – one is 800m away at Pierce’s Farm on land north of Goring Lane and another 2.6km away at Pingewood Road South.

Visual impacts on the landscape have also been assessed, with the proposals claiming that these are mostly limited to visibility within the site, with wider visibility considered "very minimal".

This, says the application, is due to the gently undulating landscape, mature woodland and hedgerows within and surrounding the site.

The council report says a community engagement exercise showed that, generally speaking, the local community was not opposed to the principle of renewable energy, nor the site itself, although there has been local opposition.

Earlier this year, the price tag to build the West Berkshire Council-funded solar farm went up by £2m from its original estimate of £10m.

The local authority carried out a feasibility study – costing £426,000.

This, claims the council, showed the solar farm could offset around 30 per cent of the council’s carbon footprint, including the estimated footprint of contractors working on the local authority’s behalf.

But the council is refusing to make public the feasibility study, or any business cases which would point to the actual cost, or return, to the West Berkshire council tax payers who are funding it.

Or whether it will break even in its expected 25-year life span.