Burtree Lane

Solar Farm

Aura Power is working on a solar farm proposal at Whessoe, north of Darlington with a capacity of up to 49.9MW (Megawatts). Burtree Lane Solar Farm will be built without subsidy and would generate enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of over 14,000 homes, saving around 10,900 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year.

Darlington Borough Council has declared a climate emergency and this solar farm will help in the quest to net zero and decarbonisation of the UK’s energy system.

Burtree Lane Solar Farm will not only increase the supply of clean power but as solar is the lowest cost form of new energy generation it will also help to reduce national power prices.

It offers a number of benefits locally with increased biodiversity proposals and a community benefit fund of £350 per MW per year (index-linked), for the lifetime of the solar farm. This could amount to £17,500 a year for 40 years or £700,000 in total, used locally for social and environmental projects.  We are also offering educational sessions with local schools and site visits to the solar farm.

As a local business, our solar farm will be contributing over £80,000 in business rates to Darlington Borough Council every year.

Further details on the proposal and frequently asked questions can be found further down this page.

Latest News

March 2024 - Planning permission was granted by Darlington Borough Council in November 2022. Construction is anticipated to commence in Summer 2025. Local residents will be notified in advance by letter and are welcome to contact Aura Power on 0117 214 1971 if they have any queries in the meantime.

Jul 2021

On the 6th July we held a Pre-Planning Public Consultation Webinar and Q&A session event where we outlined our plans and answered questions live from the community.

Mar 2022

Design Finalised and Planning App Submitted. We will consider all community feedback from the Public Consultation before finalising the design, ready for submission.

Nov 2022

Planning Permission Granted

Summer 2025

Construction is anticipated to commence

Key Facts & Benefits

14400

equivalent number of homes powered every year

Stated figure is calculated using BEIS ‘Sub-national electricity consumption statistics 2019’ (latest publish Dec 2020) which reports an average domestic consumption per Darlington Borough Council Household of 3352 kwh

10900

tonnes of CO2 saved every year

Calculated using the UK Government Gas Conversion Factor, BEIS, 2020 of 0.2773 Tonnes Carbon/MWh. NV Calculations based on the PV Syst generation report for the proposed layout

17000

equivalent number of electric cars powered per year

Estimated figure calculated using an average mileage of 9435 miles per year (MOT data from RAC Foundation) and an average power consumption of 2,887 kWh (Electric Vehicle Database 2021)

Contributes to local and national targets
Construction and supply jobs created
£17,500 Anual Community Benefit Fund
Local School Visits
Over £80,000 in business rates to Darlington Borough Council each year

Listening to the views of the local community is very important to us and the feedback received has helped shape our design.

Local community members will be notified in advance of construction commencing which is anticipated for the Summer 2025.

Local residents are welcome to contact us in the meantime on 0117 214 1971 or [email protected]

8.7.21

Our Proposal

Site Location

We have been undertaking several environmental and visual surveys to help inform our design. Our proposal offers a number of ecological and local benefits as well as continued agricultural use, with sheep being able to graze beneath the panels.

Our aim is to design the solar farm appropriately and as sensitively as possible to the surroundings whilst maximising the generation of clean energy.

Indicative site layout shown on the image to the left – click to enlarge.

We are now collating feedback from local residents to further shape our design. Please do contact us on the details below or fill out our short feedback form

Why Here?

This site has been carefully selected due to:

  • Suitable landscape with historical landfill site
  • Limited sensitive receptors and ability to screen with tree and hedgerow planting
  • Existing electrical infrastructure onsite
  • A secured grid connection
  • Substantial generation capacity already secured
  • Opportunity to boost biodiversity
  • No landscape designations
  • Good levels of solar irradiation in this part of the country
Who we support

We are proud to be a business member of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust who make incredible efforts to increase the populations of bumblebees in the UK.

Projected Views

Contact Us

Your feedback is very important to us. Please leave a comment and one of our project team will get back to you as soon as possible.

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