The Isle of Wight’s largest solar farm has been approved to provide energy for future generations.
On Tuesday (5th September), the green light was given to the Barnfield Solar Farm on the outskirts of Yarmouth, which would be able to generate enough green energy to power around 9,300 homes a year.
The plans had been met with concerns from nearby residents at the meeting of the Isle of Wight Council’s planning committee, about negatively impacting the landscape at Wilmingham Lane, by putting solar panels on a greenfield site and a lack of community benefit, apart from the energy.
Councillor Matt Price said the solar farm was a necessary evil, and that when the committee turns down green energy-producing facilities, they were putting energy at risk for younger generations.
He said:
“The future is not in fossil fuels, is it in renewables. If you ask the younger generation what we should be doing, it is not turning down solar farms.”
Cllr Geoff Brodie said there would be community benefit in the longer term, moving away from fossil fuel dependency with a self-sufficient energy supply which would be reflected in bills in years to come.
There are 6 other solar farms in the surrounding West Wight area, all of which have the capacity combined to produce 25MW a year, but the Barnfield project would be able to produce 28MW alone.
A representative of Low Carbon UK said the site could be up and running in the next 2 years, and operational for the next 40 years. He answered concerns about the electrical grid capability on the Island, saying the company would not bring forward the site if the capability was not there.
He said the Island needed the solar farm if it was to meet its net zero goal by 2040 and that it would help deliver 10% of the council’s target towards self-sufficiency and renewable energy generation.
The application was unanimously supported by the committee and the permission will be subject to 21 conditions.
> He said the Island needed the solar farm if it was to meet its net zero goal by 2040 and that it would help deliver 10% of the council’s target towards self-sufficiency and renewable energy generation.
There it is. Conformation WEF is involved. Climate change is a leftist hoax
Or, less controversially, the targets are working as an incentive to get councils to do their part. Maybe get some life experience and you might find out not everything is a conspiracy
the isle of wight council agreeing to a solar farm, is likely to be as effective at reducing fossil fuel consumption as using a hand held fire extinguisher to put out a volcano.
And yet it is also somehow important enough for the WEF to be involved… you need to get off the internet for a bit
At least it should help out with the council’s poor finances as they must have all received huge backhanders to make it an unanimous vote when there has been so much island resident disapproval.
The island is lost and for one, I will never vote again, local or national, for any political party or for replying to any planning notices, for or against.
The lunatics have taken over the asylum so let them get on with it….
I accept our need to reduce our use of fossil fuels and the need to go green, but there is a massive flaw in this whole project which needs clarifying before this greenfield site is destroyed. The Government have been made aware recently by Regen that connection times for new large solar farms is likely to be between 10 & 15 years. Surely the likely grid connection date was the first thing to be ascertained before any planning application was submitted and time wasted discussing it. This omission is worrying.
I don’t believe 10-15 years…. 2-5 is the realistic target. The IOW just doesn’t have the required infrastructure to support large scale solar farms right now…. and then there’s the one in Wooton…
This 10-15 year connection time is an official estimate from Regen who manage storage on the grid. This figure has also been quoted by Centrica & Solar Energy UK. I think therefore that it is realistic.
Matt Price said the solar farm was a necessary evil
He said:
“The future is not in fossil fuels, is it in renewables
ha ha ha not any time soon Matt, ask yourself how much oil a wind turbine uses, to keep the working gear lubricated, ask yourself how much oil is used in digging up the materials that are used to make solar panels and read this excerpt from reuters in june of this year…
Renewables growth did not dent fossil fuel
Global energy demand rose 1% last year and record renewables growth did nothing to shift the dominance of fossil fuels, which still accounted for 82% of supply, the industry’s Statistical Review of World Energy report said
Coal’s share in power generation remained dominant at around 35.4%
That’s a very silly and ill thought out argument. You’ve obviously cherry picked a little nugget of information and tried to make it an absolute argument winning fact. Yes, wind turbines and indeed the great percentage of rotating machinery need grease and lubrication. The difference being, the other power generators not only need fossil fuel derivatives for lubrication but a great many of them burn it too. So in short, given that they all need fossil based lubrication, not all of them burn it.
You do realise that turbines are used in pretty much all forms of energy production right? You don’t just burn oil and magically get electricity
The level of stupid in this post is extreme, even by your usual standards.
I cannot believe you even posted that John, what islander has said are facts
If you believe the gibberish that swivel-eyed loon posts, you are even more dumb than him/her/it.
And I thought “islander” was the absolute nadir of intelligence.
Remember it’s not like housing development if ever becomes redundant it can be dismantled for growing food again