More solar farm parks planned for Cornwall

Around the size of 150 football pitches, the new park would be a whopping six times the size of the UK’s current largest 28,000 panel 37-acre site near South Brent. In the very early stages of the planning process. While most of the established solar farms in the region have around a five megawatt capacity – which in simple terms is enough to supply about 1,000 homes – the proposed project would have a capacity of between 25 and 30 megawatts.

Based in Wiltshire, renewable electricity company is currently looking at the 224 acres of farmland in the Week St Mary area as a potential site for the solar panels.

The solar PV project has already been met with local opposition, with critics arguing that the solar farm is simply too big for the area. Local residents have also voiced their concerns about the impact the solar park would have on wildlife, no to mention the effect on property prices and values.

On Friday worried local residents converged on a meeting which was held at Week St Mary’s Village Hall.

“We do not want this to happen in our area. We are not against renewable energy, we are against the magnitude of this. It is huge, it is frightening,” said local teacher Pauline Smeeth.

Good Energy are based in Chippenham, Wiltshire. A company spokesman said the scheme was in its very early stages and an environmental impact assessment would be carried out before they went any further.

“Our company has always consulted extensively with communities and offered people the opportunity to benefit from whatever’s put forward. One idea we may want to explore would be a local electricity tariff, which would reduce energy costs for local people,” said Ed Gill, head of external affairs at Good Energy.