FAQS

There is an urgent need to generate energy from new, affordable, and environmentally friendly sources, and solar power emerges as the most cost-effective and rapidly deployable among all energy sources. Analysis by the UK Government showed that the levelised cost of electricity (the average cost of generating one unit of electricity over a power plant’s lifetime) for solar is £41/ MWh, cheaper than both offshore wind (£44/MWh) and natural gas (£114/MWh).

Solar power is already yielding tangible results. For instance, during the period from June to August in 2022, solar power frequently contributed up to 25% of the UK’s daytime electricity (according to the National Grid ESO carbon app).

Even in winter, solar panel technology is still effective; at one point in February 2022, solar was providing more than 20% of the UK’s electricity (According to the National Grid).

Solar power is a core part of the Government’s net zero target, and it intends to more than triple solar power capacity by 2030. Achieving this objective requires the deployment of larger scale solar farms as well as on the rooftops of industrial and residential buildings.

The site for Pendderi Road Solar Farm has been carefully selected as part of a detailed site assessment process. Considerations have been made on all the following, to ensure this site is the most appropriate one for our scheme: grid capacity, land availability, heritage assets, flood risk and agricultural land quality.

The solar farm is a temporary development and will not change the land classification. Once the solar farm is no longer in operation it will be decommissioned, and the land will return to its previous agricultural usage.

No. Solar panels have no moving parts and emit no sound. Inverters and transformers can emit very low-level sound, but these are sited away from houses and cannot be heard from more than a few metres away.

The UK Food Security Report (2021) found that “the biggest medium to long term risk to the UK’s domestic production comes from climate change and other environmental pressures like soil degradation, water quality and biodiversity”. Solar farms currently account for 0.08% of total land use in the UK (Solar Energy UK 2022). In order to reach the Government’s target of a fivefold increase in solar by 2035, it is estimated that 0.3% of the UK’s land area would need to be used for solar farms (Carbon Brief, 2022). This is the equivalent to around half of the space used by golf courses.

There is no evidence that solar farms have a negative impact on wildlife. In fact, wildlife thrives within the sites when managed sensitively.

We are committed to significant net biodiversity benefit at Pendderi Road through the creation of new habitats to support local wildlife. Existing hedgerows will be strengthened, and new hedgerows will be planted to improve habitat connectivity across the site. We will set aside a significant proportion of the land for habitats to support mammals, birds and invertebrates.

Further ecological enhancement measures such as bird boxes and bat boxes will be placed within the site to encourage those populations to prosper.

It typically takes 12 months to build a solar farm of this size. Site working would typically be Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings only.

A construction traffic management plan will be conditioned and subject to detailed liaison with the highways department post planning. Once the solar farm is constructed, monitoring will be carried out remotely, minimising visits by maintenance staff.