A London firm’s bid to build a solar farm ten times the size of a neighboring village has taken a major step forward.
Plans by Evolution Power (EP) to build a field spanning 250 football pitches around Aldington, near Ashford, passed the first round of scrutiny this week.
It comes as many energy firms seek to strike deals with landowners and councils for new solar farms across Kent as the UK seeks to meet its net-zero emissions target by 2050.
Evolution bosses announced on Tuesday that its bid for the Planning Inspectorate (PI), the body responsible for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP), had been accepted for scrutiny.
If plans go ahead, the photovoltaic panels on its 400-acre Stonestreet Green solar farm will power 48,000 homes a year with 99.9 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy.
But outspoken campaigners have branded the scheme “disgusting” and believe house prices will be pushed down, prompting an exodus of residents.
Last year, estate agent Matthew Ryde warned the move would make Aldington “a less attractive place to live”.
As the Evolution project would generate more than 50 megawatts, it is categorized as an NSIP, essentially a major infrastructure scheme.
This means that only the government, or more precisely the planning inspectorate, has the power to give the green light to a project after a series of investigations and reports.
After Evolution submitted its development consent – essentially preliminary planning documents – it sparked a strong backlash.
Reacting to the bid, Aldington and Mersham Support Group founder Derek Burles called on residents to join forces to fight the plans.
“We have to look back at the village meeting in November 2022 when those present voted unanimously against this abominable plan based on its location, scale and cumulative effect,” he said.
“Now that the planning inspector has approved the developer’s application, the community must act in unison, led by the parish council and Aldington and Mersham Support Group, to ensure that the shortcomings highlighted by the adequacy of the consultation submission are given maximum effect during the trial period.”
Evolution director Giles Frampton says the project will generate low-cost renewable energy.
It says it will help boost security of electricity supply and points out that there have been three rounds of consultation since the plans were launched three years ago.
He emphasizes that the company will take note of all feedback from the community – positive and negative.
If successful, electricity will be fed into the national grid via a connection at the nearby Selindge electricity substation.
Mr Frampton told KentOnline: “We carried out extensive pre-application consultation on our proposals prior to submission, including a five-week non-statutory consultation, two five-week statutory consultations and two four-week targeted consultations.
“We consulted in a variety of ways to maximize consultant participation – a large number of consultants provided feedback and we carefully considered all responses received as we finalized our project proposals.”
Mr Frampton says a newsletter will be sent out to local households and businesses detailing how the local community can make representations and take an active role during the next phase of the investigation.
It comes as Ashford Borough Council (ABC) has rejected proposals by French energy firm EDF Renewables for a 190-foot-field-sized site near Sellindge and Aldington.
The proposed project, called ‘East Stour Solar Farm’, would generate enough power for the equivalent of 16,900 homes.
But planning chiefs rejected the 256-acre scheme.
If the smaller EDF project went ahead, building the site on arable farmland between Aldington, Smeeth and Sellindge “would result in significant adverse individual and cumulative impacts on the landscape character”, planning chiefs said.
They highlighted the negative impact the farm would have “on visual amenity which cannot be appropriately mitigated”.