Green light set for revised solar farm plans – Insider Media

Revised plans for a solar farm in Lincolnshire, which has the potential to power thousands of homes, could soon be green lit.Lightsource is seeking planning permission for a facility on land off Green Lane, Gonerby Moor.The application site extends to approximately 142.5 acres and comprises six fields of arable, agricultural land.Proposals include the installation of a solar farm with ground mounted solar photovoltaic panels, including mounting system, inverters, underground cabling, stock proof fencing, CCTV, internal access tracks, electricity substation and associated infrastructure for a temporary period of 40 years.The current application is a revised submission of a scheme refused in July 2023.Lightsource has sought to address the previous reasons for refusal by excluding areas of best and most versatile agricultural land from the area of operational development, increasing the buffer from the proposed energy infrastructure and the public rights of way (PRoW) to ten metres and increasing the planting adjacent to the PRoW and the across the site.The revised solar farm is anticipated to have a generating capacity of up to 23 megawatts (MW) and would produce the equivalent to meeting the energy needs of approximately 6,701 homes within the UK.South Kesteven District Council’s planning committee will review the plans on 19 January.A report for the committee said: “It is officers’ assessment that the application proposals have satisfactorily demonstrated that there are no suitable sites of lower value land which would be capable of accommodating the proposed development and, therefore, the application site has been demonstrated as being sequentially preferable.”Members have been recommended to approve the project, subject to conditions.