Six days in September have now been announced by the Planning Inspectorate for an inquiry into Swindon Borough Council’s approval for the biggest solar energy farm in the country to be built on the former airfield at Wroughton.
But no venue has yet been fixed for the inquiry into the controversial scheme, a joint project between Swindon Commercial Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the council and the Science Museum Group.
And when it is held it now faces a major setback with the government’s announcement on Tuesday that subsidies for solar farms are to be scrapped in a bid to curb the blight of the countryside.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change has now admitted that the spread, in particular in the West Country, of large scale solar farms has been “much stronger than anticipated” and added that some projects have been “insensitively sited.”
In the Wroughton case, the project is for 160,000 solar panels is on a site that is part of the Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Beauty, resulting in objections from ANOB and other conservation groups.
And the subsidy decision follows the announcement last month by Energy Minister Greg Barker that solar farms must not become “the new onshore wind”, preference now being given to individual solutions such as solar panels fitted to factory rooftops.
Although a separate new subsidy scheme will become available to large solar farms, it is fully expected that it will be far more difficult for massive solar farms to gain funding under the new regime.
Leonie Greene, head of external affairs for the Solar Trade Association, says the industry is “dismayed” at the decision and that the replacement subsidy scheme simply “doesn’t work for solar.”
“The new scheme will have a capped budget and onshore window and solar farm projects will be forced to compete with each other in reverse situation to win subsidy contracts,” she claims.
Meanwhile, the Wroughton planning inquiry has been fixed for September 9 to 18 and will be held within the Swindon area.
“Swindon Borough Council is the planning authority for this application, not the applicant,” Richard Freeman, the council’s spokesman, told Marlborough News Online.
“Our role is to decide whether the application is valid in planning terms, but it is for the joint applicants — the Science Museum and Swindon Commercial Services — to comment on whether the viability of their scheme is affected by this announcement.”
Other solar farm projects in the West Country have also met opposition, in some cases from constituency Tory MPs.
Sarah Wollaston, whose Totnes constituency includes a scheme at Coombeshead Farm, took part in a House of Commons debate calling for a curb on solar schemes.
“I don’t want to see just for profit 60 acres of panels installed with another three developments just a short distance away,” she protested.
“It will destroy a beautiful part of South Hams to have panels spread over what is effectively 90 football pitches.”
