We escaped to the country for idyllic village life – now we face being imprisoned by sea of solar panels
A couple who moved to the countryside to escape overdevelopment on the outskirts of London say they are devastated by plans to build a massive solar farm around their new rural community.
Chris and Maggie Firth said coming to the idyllic village of North Clifton on the River Trent in Nottinghamshire was a “dream” after spending £350,000 on a five-bedroom house in a modern development six years ago.
But now the retired couple say they face “collateral damage” in the construction of a massive solar farm project that will measure 3,500 acres and cover the area of about 2,200 football fields.
The company behind it, One Earth Solar Farm, says the solar farm will provide enough electricity to power more than 200,000 homes a year, and energy secretary Ed Miliband is set to make a decision on the plans this year.
It is one of more than 1,100 sites earmarked for solar farms in the UK under proposals that have been approved or passed through the planning system; The Labor government is increasing the number of projects approved towards its target of 95 percent clean energy by 2030.
Most of the farms have been proposed in rural Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, and almost all have been met with fierce local opposition.
In North Clifton, 98 per cent of residents surveyed said they opposed the solar farm plan. There are only 110 houses in the neighborhood and there are fears about the impact on the village school and church if people leave the village due to development.
After the company made “significant changes” following feedback, the solar farm’s master plan shows the project boundary covers all three sides of the village; However, he said that the fields in the north and south of the village will be cleared of solar panels.
Ms Firth, a former finance worker, said: Independent: “After 30 years in Surrey, we moved to retire from the M25 traffic, overdevelopment and general stress of city living. Once we found this beautiful, quiet hamlet and saw the house, moving was like a dream.”
“We walked the dogs in the surrounding fields and got involved in rural village life.
“Then we heard about the solar farm plans and when I went to the consultation I burst into tears. The panels would literally surround the village, making it feel like a prison. You’d have to go a long way just to get away from seeing the damn things.”
“We need to protect our countryside, not run solar panels over it and impact rural village life. We’re just collateral damage in the government’s quest for green energy, aren’t we?”
Mr Firth, 74, a former facilities manager, said the couple, whose home has solar panels, would consider moving again if the plans were approved. “So if everyone starts moving, what will this mean for schools, village life, house prices?” he added.
The pair’s words were echoed in more than 100 comments lodged with the government’s planning inspectorate objecting to the solar farm. Fellow villager David White, who runs the Say No to One World Farm group, also expressed concern about land being used at risk of flooding.
In documents filed with the government, One Earth Solar Farm said it plans to raise solar panels higher off the ground in some areas to reduce risk, balancing this against visual impacts.
However, villagers are already unhappy with the proposed height of solar panels up to 3.8 meters above the ground in some areas. The height of a substation can also reach 13.5 meters, according to planning documents.
The company also said it would plant 14 acres of woodland and 9 miles of new hedgerows, and that solar panels and infrastructure would cover less than 2,400 acres of the overall area because of land set aside for wildlife and environmental benefits. Fifteen full-time staff will also be employed at the facility.
But North Clifton district chairman James Radley said the loss of farming and its impact on local employment would likely offset the jobs created. “This will destroy the sense of rural life we enjoy,” he said.
Mr Radley said he understood farmers were being offered £1,000 per acre a year to install solar panels on their land.
The government on Monday subsidized renewable energy projects, including a contract for the 2,550-acre West Burton solar farm to be built about 10 miles from North Clifton.
One Earth Solar Farm said it had consulted with the community for the past two years and made changes after each round of consultation, including moving solar panels away from homes and villages, reducing the size of the farm and choosing a location for the substation that would have the least impact on the community.
A spokesman also said noise-making components in the solar farm, such as batteries, substations and inverters, will be kept at least 100 meters away from homes.
They added: “We have sought to balance the need to produce as much clean, home-grown energy as possible in a way that is sensitive to the local community and the environment.
“We are confident that our final proposals will achieve this balance and we are currently awaiting the approval decision of the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero later this summer.”
The government said all solar projects are subject to a strict planning process. A spokesman said: “The biggest threat to agriculture and nature is the climate crisis. Solar energy is one of the cheapest and fastest forms of energy to build, freeing us from fossil fuels and providing energy security so we can completely reduce our bills.”
“Even in the most ambitious scenarios, we expect only 0.4 per cent of total land in the UK to be used for solar energy by 2030.”
