Plans lodged for 50-acre solar farm in Preston
Greentech Projects wants to develop across three fields at Lower House Farm off Lewth Lane.
If plans come to fruition, a 20MW solar photovoltaic electricity production facility would be developed on the 50-acre site currently used as agricultural land.
According to documents submitted to Preston City Council, the development would comprise rows of fixed array solar panels mounted on metal rack frames with legs or stilts pile driven into the ground. They would have a maximum height of 3.25 metres.
Rows would be set approximately 3.5-4.5 metres apart and the land beneath and around them would rem as undeveloped vegetative cover.
This surrounding land could be managed as either an extensive wildflower meadow or retained for pasture grazing by sheep.
The proposed solar farm seeks to connect in to the existing high-voltage electricity line network where there is spare capacity and will not require new overhead power lines to be extended to the site, according to the plans submitted by Greentech.
They add that any impact of the proposed solar farm at the site would not warrant plans being classified as EIA development.
Preston City Council planners will decide on the proposals at a future date.
To view the plans, search for application reference number 06/2024/0797 on Preston City Council’s planning portal.
This is barbaric- using 50 acres of land to produce MW of electricity- which is only a single in summer and in the day and again will need the equivalent fossil fuel back up- just enough to power a coupe of large towns – this net zero obsession is going to end very badly
By Stuart wood
Stuart – you are right.
All this just to power say 1,000 homes. But at least there may be some wildflowers.
By Anonymous