Massive solar plant the size of 500 football pitches sparks fury – ‘it’s a carbuncle’ | UK | News
Cleve Hill Solar Park is the largest solar farm in the UK (Image: Getty)
Baffled residents living near Britain’s largest solar farm have dubbed the massive site the “carbuncle” of the British countryside. Aerial views of the massive Cleve Hill Solar Park near the village of Graveney in Kent show the massive complex stretching to the horizon on the banks of the River Swale.
According to the Cleve Hill solar website, the facility currently in operation will be able to provide “affordable and clean electricity” to power 102,000 homes with 550,000 solar panels. However, 65 percent of the electricity produced was purchased through corporate agreements, with supermarket firm Tesco purchasing it, while the remaining 35 percent went to oil giant Shell. With a capacity of 373 megawatts (MW), Cleve Hill produces less energy than the average coal power plant, which produces about 500 MW.
Permission to build the solar farm, a nationally significant infrastructure project, was granted by the Government and not Swale Municipal Council (SBC). The local authority later refused permission to build the massive lithium Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), but the permission was later turned down following an appeal to the government’s planning inspectorate, KentLive reported.
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The solar farm is the UK’s largest and covers the area of 500 football fields (Image: Getty)
Now that the site is operational, many residents have expressed concerns about the project, with one man saying: Sun: “It’s a carbuncle.”
He added: “They said it could power 100,000 homes. We later found out Tesco and Shell were buying electricity from there.”
Former county councilor William Boggia, 97, told the newspaper he understood “the value of farmland” and added that the solar panels could have been placed in a better location. Phil Harris, owner of The Sportsman pub in Graveney, questioned why the firm was building on a field to supply Tesco when there was “enormous amounts of roof space everywhere”.
He noted: “They can put a roof over their parking lot.”
Solar power plant in Kent now largest in the country (Image: Getty)
KentLive reports Private Energy Partners, which owns the solar farm, manages the £500,000 Cleve Hill Solar Park Community Relief Fund, from which local organizations can apply for grants over the next eight years.
In late 2025, funding has been made available to a number of organisations, including £18,000 for a new PA system for Graveney Parish Church and more than £23,000 to Hernhill C of E Primary School for its digital learning package.
Kent Wildlife Trust campaigned against the solar farm, citing a design it claimed would “increase impacts and significantly reduce opportunities for wildlife”.
The foundation’s website says: “Due to the risk of flooding, the panels will be placed quite high, almost 4 meters high in places, resulting in a very industrial landscape.
“Whilst we are disappointed that this scheme will go ahead, it is a positive development that we are providing wider buffers to the ditches, more mitigation areas and better management. These achievements mean that permitted development is a marked improvement on initial implementation and some species may even be better off.”
