Council approves solar farm at Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire

A new solar farm is set to be built at Bassingbourn Barracks, which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) hopes will save the same amount of carbon emissions as taking more than 650 cars off the road.

South Cambridgeshire District Council has granted planning permission for the new solar farm to be built at the military base, off the A1198.

Officers said the solar farm will “provide a meaningful contribution to the low carbon energy generation of the wider site”. Ground mounted solar panels are due to be installed across 1.15ha of the military base.

The MoD said the new solar farm would produce 2.3megawatt of energy, which it said will meet around 35 per cent of the annual energy demand at Bassingbourn Barracks.

The solar panels are expected to have a lifespan of 25 to 35 years, after which they will be decommissioned and the land will be returned to its previous condition.

Over the solar farm’s lifetime the MoD said it will help the military base avoid producing carbon emissions the equivalent of taking 652 cars off the road. The project is part of a wider scheme by the Army to reduce energy consumption and improve resilience.