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Working with the Bathurst Estate, Aura Power have been granted planning permission for a solar farm on land southwest of Kemble and northeast of Chelworth. The solar farm could generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of up to 14,441 homes, thereby saving up to 25,787 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year. These figures are based on the expected capacity of up to 49.9MW.
Kemble Solar Farm will be built without subsidy, and will therefore compete with fossil fuel generation on a level playing field. By increasing the supply of clean power, our solar farm will help to reduce national power prices, whilst securing regional investment and green jobs. As a local business, our solar farm will also be contributing nearly £100,000 in business rates to Cotswold and Wiltshire Councils every year.
Furthermore, Aura is proposing a Community Benefit Fund of £400 per MW per year (index-linked), for the lifetime of the solar farm. This would amount to £20,000 a year for 40 years or nearly £800,000 in total. The funds are designed to be used for local educational, social and environmental initiatives and typically administered by the parish council(s).
As well as contributing to local and national targets in the drive to net zero, our proposal offers significant enhancements to local biodiversity; a much needed factor in tackling the current climate and ecological crisis.
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March 2024 Update
The solar farm was granted planning permission by Cotswold Council in December 2021 and by Wiltshire Council in March 2022.
Construction was originally anticipated to commence towards the end of 2023, however it is now anticipated for works on the cable route to begin later this year and construction on the main solar site to commence in the Spring 2025.
Local residents will be notified by letter in advance of construction activities commencing and are welcome to contact Aura Power in the meantime, should they have any queries.
On the 10th November we held a Pre-Planning Public Consultation Webinar and Q&A session event where we outlined the proposal and answered questions from the local community. A recording of this webinar is available to watch below.
We submitted our planning application to Cotswold District Council and Wiltshire Council. Details of how to view the application can be seen in the latest news section.
The application will be determined by each respective planning authority. This process can take anything from 13 weeks to 40.
Planning Permission was granted and preparation commences for construction.
Construction is expected to commence taking 4-6 months. The local community will be notified when dates are confirmed.
Based upon 430 tonnes of carbon dioxide per GWh for electricity supplied by fossil fuels, published by DBEIS (28th March 2019) 2018 UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Provisional Figures Statistical Release: National Statistics.
Stated figure is calculated the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ‘Sub-national electricity consumption statistics 2017’ updated September 2019, which reports an average domestic consumption per household in the South West of 4,152.64kWh (DBEIS, 2019). NB. All figures reported to 3 significant figures unless stated otherwise.
Using a Solar Radiation Database (source: https://www.rensmart.com/Maps) figure of 3.33kwh/m2/day, a candidate solar panel irradiation efficiency of 15.1% and 10% array losses.
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Prior to submitting the planning application, we consulted with the local community to develop the final design for the solar farm. We will continue to work closely with the community through the construction phase and are always available to answer any queries and concerns.
The revised site layout and landscaping can be seen in the image to the left – please click to enlarge.
For full permitted plans please view the Planning Application Documents here.
Whilst offering ecological benefits locally, we understand that solar farms can represent a change to the landscape. As such, we conducted a number of environmental and visual surveys to establish and mitigate any such effects.
We have worked closely with local residents to address concerns and amended our site design to allow further setback from footpaths and residences as well as planting mature trees and hedgerows for more immediate screening.
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
Designed by The SourdoughPenthouse Office
30 Queen Square
Bristol BS1 4ND
+44 (0) 117 214 1982