‘Build Britain’s biggest solar farm elsewhere’

Great to see that Canterbury city councillors “have written to the Energy Secretary in a bid to halt plans for the UK’s largest solar park in their district.”

Source Kent Online article ‘Canterbury councillors fighting solar farm plans in Graveney’ by Lydia Chantler-Hicks: ‘Build Britain’s biggest solar farm elsewhere’

The article explains:

Campaigners fighting plans to build Britain’s biggest solar park on the outskirts of Canterbury claim the district is already “punching six times its weight” when it comes to producing green energy.

The controversial development would see land the size of 900 football pitches covered with solar panels in Graveney – producing enough electricity to power 110,000 homes.

But city councillors Ashley Clark and Colin Spooner say the district is providing more renewable energy than the national average and the park should be built elsewhere.

They say the production of green energy should fall evenly across the country.

“It should not be disproportionately dumped on districts that are both densely populated, and already punching way above their weight in terms of renewable energy to the National Grid,” they said.

“We are informed that the national average for renewable energy is in the order of 30%.

“With the Whitstable Offshore Wind Farm and the extensive areas in the green gap between Whitstable and Herne Bay, as well as other sites, the Canterbury City Council area alone is already contributing sufficient energy to power every home in the council districts of Canterbury and Swale combined.

“The Canterbury area alone is punching six times its weight against the national average.”

We’re really pleased to see the campaign growing and welcome the move from Ashley and Colin.

One small problem with the article is the use of standard stock imagery to show ‘solar’. This images show the common type of solar, pointed to the south, and spaced far apart to ensure that the panels n front don’t block the ones behind. This spacing allows for wildflower planting and the pictures always look quite reasonable:

The development at Cleve Hill uses an ‘east-west’ orientation of panels that are almost flat, up to 4 metres high, and densely packed together. They would be laid out in strips over 24 metre wide. This diagram from the developers shows the actual style proposed:

This image, from the developer’s publicity, shows how industrial this proposed design is. There is no spacing between panels, and so the area below the panels is dark and gloomy. No wildflowers in this picture: