How would the Sid Valley generate its own power?
There are different ways to do large-scale stretches of solar panels: covering roofs and creating solar farms are the most obvious – and both have been in the news lately.
SOLAR ROOFS
Shopping centre bosses have been given the green light to cover its buildings with 5,000 solar panels. Swindon Borough Council has approved the application from Orbital Retail Park Swindon Ltd. The solar panels aim to provide a “commercially viable” option for tackling climate change…
Orbital Retail Park to install 5,000 solar panels – BBC News
A secondary school is proposing to fit solar panels to its roofs to generate some of its own green power. The Rhyddings Buisness and Enterprise school in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, has applied to Hyndburn Council for prior approval of the scheme…
Oswaldtwistle school going green with solar panel roof farm plan – BBC News
SOLAR FARMS
Government plans zonal pricing to encourage developments in high population areas. Developers are to be handed more cash to erect wind turbines and solar farms near towns and cities in a bid to get more power generation near to where it is needed…
More cash for wind farms near towns as net zero shift stretches grid
Plans for a massive solar farm in rural Northamptonshire have been turned down by the government. The 175-acre (70-hectare) site would have stretched across two fields near the villages of Gayton, Rothersthorpe and Milton Malsor. A planning inspector had recommended the scheme should go ahead. The developer, Anesco, said the plans would “offer a sustainable development that would bring a raft of benefits”.
Government blocks plans for solar farm in Northamptonshire – BBC News
And yet the government allowed the planning inspector to go ahead with approving a large solar farm in East Devon in November:
Sheep at Manor Solar Farm. [Mike Landy, Creative Commons] Planning Inspector approves 30-MW solar project in East Devon
Meanwhile, from a year ago, in West Devon:
Ripple Energy has recently announced that its first shared solar park will be built in Derril Water, Devon. Ripple Energy, a co-operative ownership pioneer, is offering shares in Derril Water, a 42MW PV project in West Devon, claiming to be Britain’s first consumer-owned solar farm. Shares starting at £25 are available for local investors and UK citizens interested in clean power. The venture has planning permission on low grade fields at Pyworthy, after Ripple bought the Devon project from developers RES. The company sees shared ownership of solar farms as an affordable, straightforward way for households to address climate change and reduce their carbon footprint.
Devon’s first shared-ownership solar farm
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