Solar farm in Derbyshire countryside set to get green light

The area around Alfreton has been subject to numerous solar farm plans over the past year and Anesco Ltd now has its 94-acre plans north of the town recommended for approval.

If it gets the green light, the farm would be built on fields to the east of the sewage treatment works, west of the train line and a commercial explosives firm and north of the Meadow Lane Industrial Estate.

This site had been subject to an early application (an environmental impact assessment) from Vento Ludens with a slightly larger 120-acre scheme in early January, but a ful application has not been submitted.

MORE NEWS: Body found in Derbyshire after search for missing man Joshua Jones

A 94-acre application, from Anesco is now recommended for approval by Amber Valley Borough Council planning officers.

A decision will be made by councillors on Monday, October 11.

Application documents from Anesco say construction of the proposed solar farm would take between 26 and 28 weeks. Once built, the firm says the solar farm could produce enough electricity to power 4,946 homes each year.

It says: “The proposed development will play a very significant role in combating climate change and the move towards a low carbon future.

“It would result in an approximate saving of 4,378 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per annum.”

If approved, the solar farm would remain on the site for 40 years, after which the panels and infrastructure would be removed and the land would be returned to agricultural use.

Alfreton Town Council and Blackwell Parish Council have both lodged objections to the scheme.

The town council says it acknowledges the importance and requirements for sustainable renewable energy but feels this is not the right location for a solar farm.

It says a more acceptable scheme would plan to install solar panels on roof spaces, industrial units or former industrial sites.

The parish councils say the proposal would “blight the view from the village of Westhouses” and would be easily visible from the surrounding area.

Cllr John Walker, a member of the borough council planning committee, said the scheme would have a “major effect” on residents in the surrounding neighbourhood.

A total of 12 objection letters were submitted by residents living close to the site.

They welcome the principal of solar farms in Amber Valley and the creation of green energy, but feel the location is too close to housing and spreads the industrial area of the town further into the countryside.

Comments include: “Given that the town has large industrial estates with flat roofs it would make sense to utilise those for solar panels.”

“All for renewable energy but not at such a devastating cost to local people, rights of access to land, loss of farmland, loss of wildlife and their habitat, and impact to buildings and communities, the negative impact to unspoilt countryside and knock on effect to local tourism.”

Recommending approval, council planners say that “the benefits of the development in so far as the provision of renewable energy and a reduction in carbon emissions amount to circumstances which outweigh the less than substantial landscape and visual impacts of the development”.