Local News

Solar Farm public exhibition

15/03/2023

Elgin Energy will be exhibiting their ideas for a solar farm on Hanwell Estate land

A public exhibition is being held this afternoon so people can find out more about a potential solar farm which could be built on land to the north of Hanwell.

The proposed site at Hanwell Estate covers around 80.5 hectares of land and would deliver enough electricity for around 15,657 homes. If given permission to go ahead solar panels will be mounted in fields to the north of the village, mainly between the B4100 and the M40. Sheep grazing would continue in the fields around the solar panels.

Elgin Energy is the company behind the idea. They say that planning permission would be sought on a temporary basis for the project’s lifetime of up to 40 years. They add that at the end of the generating station’s operational life the solar farm would be decommissioned and the site returned to full agricultural use.

Rob Kelly, Elgin Energy’s Development Manager, said: ”At this point in the project, we are consulting with local residents to fully understand their thoughts and concerns ahead of our formal planning submission in the coming months. This is an important step for us in the project development as it ensures there is public input into the project and the corresponding planning submission.

“Invitations to the public exhibition were sent out to all local residents to the proposed site. However, we welcome all public feedback/input on the project. The project details can be found at Hanwellsolarfarm.com where there are also online feedback forms.”

The Keep Hanwell Rural campaign group do not support the proposals. In a recent social media post they said: “The Solar PARK being proposed between Hanwell, Shotteswell and Horley is equivalent size to over 18 Wembley Stadiums! Let’s not pretend this is some sort of ‘farm’ – this is of an industrial size.

“These fields should be kept for their high value in agricultural use and climate offsetting. Solar panels belong on top of huge warehouse buildings (eg Amazon, Warburtons) and not in our natural open spaces where our food and produce should be coming from.”

Details of the solar farm proposal will be on display at Hanwell Village Hall between 3pm and 7pm today. Representatives from Elgin Energy will be present to answer questions.

Published: 15/03/2023 12:50pm by Banbury FM Newsteam

Reader's opinions

Jon Caterra On 22/07/2023 at 6:46 pm

Total disaster – must not happen
We are ruining our beautiful countryside with this relentless drive to fuel, feed and sustain an absurdly over populated country !!

Reply

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