Fears that solar farm will look like an ‘ocean of panels’

Cornwall residents say building another large solar farm in the village would give the landscape an “ocean feel”.

Cornwall Council is to consider a 200-acre site at Canworthy Water near Launceston at Thursday’s meeting of its strategic planning committee.

There is already a photovoltaic farm in the village, and residents claim that they have already installed the appropriate number of panels.

Developers Windel say the project will help the UK meet its future renewable energy targets.

Lynette Hutchinson, leader of Warbstow Parish Council, said he was concerned about the visual impact the solar farm would have on the area.

She said: “Right now, if you look down at the existing solar panels, you see a lake – which is a bit worrying.

“When these two objects are placed next to each other, it will look like an ocean.

“It’ll be a bit of a shock for people when they go out for a nice walk. It’ll be that big.”

The Labour Party has already signalled its support for solar farms by approving further projects around the country.

Cornwall councillor Barry Jordan, who represents the village, said he feared the developers would win an appeal to the government’s planning inspectorate if the council rejected the scheme.

“They’ll just check it off,” he said. “We have to fight — we can win, but if we don’t fight, we’ll never win.”

He believed that other sources of renewable energy should be considered before building solar farms in Cornwall.

“I think geothermal energy can be a good solution because we have hot rocks at 5 km and hot rocks can generate electricity, so there are other alternatives to solar farms,” he argued.

Professor Peter Connor, an expert in sustainable energy policy at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus, warned that extracting geothermal energy in Cornwall would be expensive and there was no guarantee it would provide enough heat.

“It’s not going to deliver cheap electricity now, which we’ve already done with wind and solar. Those are the technologies that deliver,” he said.

“A significant contribution”

Windel said: “The proposed solar farm will generate 42MW of solar energy, enough to power 11,000 homes a year.

“This programme will make a significant contribution to the Government’s Energy Security Strategy: Net Zero by 2050 and key targets including decarbonising the electricity system and increasing installed solar capacity to 70GW by 2035.”

The Department of Energy and Net Zero said: “Any development proposal will continue to be subject to detailed scrutiny, including land quality and food production.

“It is important that people’s concerns are heard, and communities living near clean energy infrastructure should benefit directly from it.”

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