Campaign group opposes plan for UK’s biggest solar farm in Cambridgeshire

A campaign group set up in response to a proposal to build a 1,500 hectare (3,700 acre) solar farm is calling on as many people as possible to take part in the public consultation.

Kingsway Solar Community Action (KSCA) was formed soon after Downing Renewable Developments first revealed its proposals for the green energy farm on three separate parcels of land near Balsham, Weston Colville, West Wratting, Brinkley and Willingham Green, stretching as far as the A11.

Called Kingsway Solar, it would have the potential to supply around 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the National Grid and power 175,000 homes. It would be the biggest solar farm in the UK, should it go ahead.

A period of public consultation has been running for four weeks, and with the closing date on December 12, KCSA wants as many people as possible to respond.

It is particularly important to do this, says the group, which includes representatives from all the parishes that would be affected, because the decision to allow or deny permission for its construction will be made by the Secretary of State and not any local authority.

Colin Eade, one of the KSCA founders, said: “At the moment it’s a consultation.

“We just need people to get involved and put in their objections and say why they don’t want it. It’s no good them just saying they don’t want it, they need to give reasons.

“We are getting ourselves organised. We have got a website and a Facebook group, we are getting there and we have put a lot of work in in a short space of time.”

The KSCA objects to the solar farm on a number of levels.

It argues that the loss of high-quality agricultural land affects food security and rural economies, that the solar farm will be detrimental to local ecosystems, biodiversity and wildlife and it wants to ensure it isn’t built too near to residential areas.

The KCSA is also concerned about the economic and regional impact of the solar farm should it be built and wants to ensure that there are long-term benefits to the community if it goes ahead.

Kingsway Solar says: “As the demand for electricity continues to grow, there is an urgent need for affordable and reliable energy sources to be developed, such as solar. Solar farms support the UK’s needs by reducing carbon emissions and the demand for imported and domestic fossil fuels.”

Explaining its choice of location, the company adds: “Our search for a suitable solar farm location was primarily driven by the need to find opportunities for connecting to the national grid, which are limited to certain regions in the UK. By 2030, National Grid needs to build five times the amount of infrastructure they have in the last 30 years. Projects like the Great Grid Upgrade, the largest electricity grid overhaul in generations, are part of efforts to carry our clean, secure energy from where it is generated to where it is needed.

“These projects by National Grid are currently creating opportunities for new renewable energy developments as part of the UK’s renewable energy transition. In this case, a planned new substation at Burwell was identified as a suitable grid connection opportunity.”

It then considered the characteristics of the land and environment, the availability of land and strategic transport links and the ability to “include areas for environmental enhancement and recreation areas”, although further studies and assessments would be undertaken.

It comes as the new Labour government pushes to decarbonise Britain’s power grid by the end of the decade, in a drive that will require a massive ramp-up in the amount of pylons and wind farms in rural areas to meet growing energy demand.

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has vowed to take on “blockers”, calling it a matter of “national security” and “economic justice”.

In July, Mr Miliband approved the huge Sunnica 2,500-acre solar farm on land in East Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, to the dismay of campaigners.

Local authorities considered a legal challenge to the decision, but later dropped it.

Meanwhile, officials are consulting on reforms to the planning system, to help push through green energy schemes more quickly.

But Jurgen Maier, chairman of Great British Energy – a new public body set up by the Labour government to accelerate the push for net zero – has argued more can be done to show the benefits of clean power projects.

He said: “In all of this we need to take our communities with us.

“We do need to put an infrastructure and planning Bill through but actually you do have to go through planning and take communities with us.

“We want to invest in community energy schemes, local power schemes… to show we can pass some of the benefits of this great renewable energy on to our consumers, which I don’t think we’ve done enough of yet.”

For more details on the proposal, visit kingswaysolarfarm.co.uk/ and to respond to the consultation, visit kingswaysolar.participatr.io/.

Additional reporting: Paul Brackley