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Aura Power is working on a solar farm proposal between Murton and South Hetton, with a capacity of up to 49.9MW (Megawatts). The solar farm will be built without subsidy and would generate enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of over 17,000 homes, saving around 15,203 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year.
County Durham has set a target to become carbon neutral by 2050 and this solar farm will help meet this target. Hawthorn Pit Solar Farm will not only increase the supply of clean power, as solar is the lowest cost form of new energy generation it will also help to reduce national power prices.
As a local business, our solar farm will be contributing over £80,000 in business rates to County Durham Council every year.
We are also offering 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. A proportion would be set aside for educational sessions with local schools and site visits to the solar farm as well as grants for residents who want to plant screening in their own properties.
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Following our public consultation event in June, we have taken onboard comments from the local community and made significant revisions to our design. These can be seen further down this page.
We have since submitted a planning application to Durham County Council. You can view the full application and share your comments with the council by clicking here.
It should be noted that National Grid is currently consulting on plans for a converter station and substation nearby at Hawthorn Pit. This will help increase the distribution of green electricity and more information on their plans can be found by clicking here. These plans are separate to Aura Power’s proposed solar farm and there is no connection between us.
Stated figure is calculated using BEIS ‘Sub-national electricity consumption statistics 2019’ (latest publish Dec 2020) which reports an average domestic consumption per County Durham Household of 3168 kwh
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
Calculated using an average mileage of 15,000 km per year and an average power consumption of 15kWh
This webinar was presented to the local community and interested parties regarding Hawthorn Pit Solar Farm. The presentation was delivered by Aura Power and followed by a Q&A session. Viewers are invited to submit their questions to chloe.hood@aurapower.com
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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.
If you have any queries please do contact us using the contact details below or fill in our feedback form.
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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.
30 Queen Square
Penthouse Office
Bristol BS1 4ND
+44 (0) 117 214 1982
Penthouse Office
30 Queen Square
Bristol BS1 4ND
+44 (0) 117 214 1982