Plan to build UK’s largest solar farm will be biggest test of government’s anti-NIMBY drive

The Government faces its biggest challenge yet in the fight against NIMBY legislation as it decides whether to give the green light to the UK’s largest solar farm.

The Cottam Solar project would cover 12.5 square kilometres – almost eight square miles – of farmland on the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire border, generating enough electricity to power 180,000 homes.

It would be significantly larger than any other solar farm currently operating, generating eight times more energy than the largest, Llanwern in Wales.

It would be almost 25 per cent larger than Sunnica, the giant solar project on the Cambridgeshire and Suffolk border that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband gave the go-ahead for this month, just three days after taking up the post – despite opposition from the government’s Planning Inspectorate.

It now has until September 5 to make a decision on Cottam Solar, near the market town of Gainsborough.

Mr Miliband will consider the need to rapidly and dramatically increase onshore solar and wind energy production if the UK is to have any chance of meeting ambitious and legally binding targets that will see it reach near net zero energy consumption in just six years.

Experts say it would face very strong local opposition and the unprecedented size of the solar farm by British standards.

Simon Skelton, a retired coal and gas power station worker who moved to the area for a rural lifestyle, is one of the town’s residents who strongly oppose the project.

“I live right in the middle of the Cottam Solar project site and I just can’t imagine what it will do to the landscape – it will be awful. The panels are 15 feet tall, as tall as a double-decker bus, covering 3,000 acres,” he said AND.

“Apart from the visual impact, it’s a very inefficient use of agricultural land. If we’re going to go down that route and put solar panels everywhere, we should start with rooftops to see if we can do it that way – before we start taking up huge swaths of agricultural land, which we think is reckless.”

Jerry Parker, a retired IT business owner who lives in the nearby village of Cammeringham, said: AND: “We would say we are not NIMBY. A NIMBY, in my opinion, is someone who doesn’t want anything around them, no matter who they are or why they were put there. We don’t fall into that category.

“It’s not because we’re NIMBYs, it’s because solar technology is inefficient. It takes a huge amount of land to generate that kind of energy.

“We seem to be inundated with these projects in Lincolnshire. We’re going to be living in an industrial estate and none of us live where we live because we want that environment. I think we’ve got a David and Goliath situation here.”

Sir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, said the scheme was “completely inappropriate. By building on top of high-quality agricultural land, we will destroy a natural resource in the heart of England’s green and pleasant countryside”.

A major report by the Royal Academy of Engineering on Monday called for the electricity grid to be decarbonised by the end of the decade, a national mission similar to the work of the COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce.

The expert panel that produced the report, including Science Minister Sir Patrick Vallance, suggested the government’s “clean energy by 2030” target could mean net zero energy production for three-quarters of the days.

On other days, when wind and sunlight are weaker, small amounts of electricity from gas-fired power plants will supplement supplies.

Dr Simon Harrison, of consultancy Mott MacDonald, who worked on the report, said: “The scale of work required to decarbonise the electricity system in such a short space of time cannot be underestimated. It will require a radical change in our approach.”

What the Royal Academy of Engineering report calls for:

• Strong central leadership, supported by the Prime Minister, and a clear strategic plan for the country to deliver the necessary infrastructure.
• Ministers must convince society and industry of the “mission” to deliver clean energy by 2030 and outline the benefits, which include…
• Personal benefits – for example, lower electricity bills because the supplier has more flexibility in when to charge the electric vehicle;
• Local benefits – for example, jobs that clean energy can provide in a given area;
• The benefits for society as a whole – avoiding the worst effects of climate change, combating respiratory diseases by switching away from polluting boilers and vehicles; reducing costs to the NHS as a result;
• The government is facing difficult decisions about planning, consents and delays in connecting new projects to the grid – such as local opposition to overhead power lines or the higher cost of bills to put them underground.

But he added: “We do not advocate mindless breaking of the planning system.”

Ed Griffiths, of Barbour ABI, which provides the government with construction data, was not involved in the report but said: “The decision on Cottam Solar looks set to be the biggest test yet of the government’s determination to push ahead with new solar farms.

“We have consistently seen a lot of planning activity for green energy projects in Lincolnshire and our research shows that Cottam, at around 3,000 acres and with a capacity of 600 megawatts, would be the largest solar project in the UK.”

A spokesman for Island Green Power, the London-based renewable energy developer behind Cottam Solar, said: “We have been working with local councils, communities and stakeholders since 2021 to develop proposals for the Cottam Solar project, which have also been subject to extensive review by the government’s Planning Inspectorate.

“The end result is a proposal that, if approved, will make a significant contribution to the Government’s commitment to make the UK a clean energy superpower by creating enough renewable electricity to power 180,000 UK homes a year.

“As well as providing affordable, renewable electricity, we are pleased that our final proposals will improve biodiversity across the site. Environmental studies suggest there will be improvements of up to 96 per cent measured in habitat units.

“At the same time, we are committed to providing direct funding to local communities around the project. This will be the subject of consultations in the coming months.”

Mr Miliband has received a report and recommendation from the Planning Inspectorate – although he has not said whether it is for or against the project.

However, he ignored a recommendation against the construction issued earlier this month when he granted the Sunnitsa building permit – so he will not automatically follow the inspectorate’s advice.

The Department of Energy and Net Zero said it could not comment on Cottam Solar because it was an ongoing planning application. A spokesman added: “Solar power is key to achieving net zero emissions, providing an abundant source of cleaner, cheaper energy.

“The Secretary of Energy has taken immediate action to expand the role of solar energy – approving three major solar projects and starting a revolution in putting solar panels on new homes.

“We will take the tough decisions with ambition and urgency – it’s all part of our plan to make the UK a clean energy superpower.”

Earlier this month, Mr Miliband said that “solar energy is critical to achieving net zero emissions” and said he intended to deploy onshore wind and solar farms where they could be built.

On Friday he wrote to developers Cottam Solar demanding clarification on the potential harm that electromagnetic fields generated by the solar farm could cause to fish, as well as on the aims of increasing biodiversity at the site.