UK Approves Huge Solar Plant Project In Rural Kent, Local Residents Aghast

The British government has approved construction of what will become the largest solar plant in the U.K.

The solar facility, which will occupy 900 acres of land along the northern Kent coast in southeast England, is expected to provide power to 91,000 homes. The project may also feature one of the largest energy storage systems in the world.

The £450 million ($554 million) project, called Cleve Hill, will have a capacity of 350 megawatts of power, and feature 880,000 solar panels – some as tall as double-decker buses.

The battery facility alone would cover 25 acres.

Wirsol Energy and Hive Energy will jointly develop the plant and hope to start generating electricity by 2023.

The project is expected to be built near the town of Faversham, close to the village of Graveney.

However, the solar site has been vociferously opposed by many local residents and has divided environmentalist groups.

Among other things, Kentish residents fear the giant energy storage unit (estimated to be five times the size of some of the largest storage projects in the world ) at the plant would have a high risk of explosion.

The sheer size of the overall solar project – equal to 600 football fields – has many local residents concerned.

Helen Whately, the Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, said the project would have a “devastating” impact by “industrializing” the countryside.

“We’re not talking about a few fields -- this would destroy an entire landscape. I want to see [the U.K.] reach [carbon neutral] by 2050, but this should not come at any cost.”

She said approval of the project was “hugely frustrating and upsetting.”

Environmental campaigners Greenpeace, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, or RSPB, and The Campaign to Protect Rural England, or CPRE, all oppose the solar farm on the basis that it would industrialize a rural part of England and may harm local wildlife.

A local environmental campaign group called The Save Graveney Marshes also warned the development will harm wildlife and scar the countryside.

“We’re not against solar, if you have community level solar parks that’s acceptable. If it was a quarter of the size and not on people’s doorsteps, then we’d be fine,” said campaigner Tom King.

However, Friends of the Earth generally supported the project, citing that intensive farming in the area was already hurting wildlife.

“No one wants to see damage to local habitats, but this is not some lovely, untouched meadow,” said Mike Childs, a Friends of the Earth spokesperson. “Changing the use of the site from intensive agriculture will reduce the high level of chemicals currently harming insects and wildlife -- but we have to hold the developers to account.”

Environmentalists also want the plant’s developers to offer free rooftop solar panels to local residents.

The developers counter that the subsidy-free project will be safe and one of the lowest-cost power generators in the U.K. They also contend the project may help reduce carbon emissions by 68,000 tons a year while generating £1 million ($1.23 million) of revenue each year for Kent and Swale government councils.

The project’s developers also declared they have “collaborated with local groups and nature conservation bodies to deliver significant local environmental benefits in the design of the scheme.”

Renewable energy is a key part in the U.K.’s strategy of developing a carbon-neutral economy by 2050 and eliminating coal use by 2025.

The renewables industry estimates that U.K.’s solar power capacity could rise to 27 gigawatts by 2030.

Chris Hewett, the chief executive of the Solar Trade Association, praised the Cleve Hill project.

“This is a major milestone on the road towards a U.K. powered by clean, affordable renewables,” he said.