In recent weeks we have provided regular updates on solar power developments and we have yet another to tell you about.
A solar panel farm
(image credit: russf)
Oakapple Renewable Energy, who are a renewable energy company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, have submitted detailed plans to build a huge 7.2MW solar panel park on the borders of Leeds. Should the company be successful in their planning application the development costing in the region of £9 million will turn out to be the biggest such development in Yorkshire.
The Haigh Hall Solar Farm, if approved, will have 32,000 solar modules located covering a vast area of 13.5 hectares with the capacity to provide power to as many as 2,100 properties per annum. The panels will be sited on what is deemed to be low-grade agricultural land.
Great news for the area would be that the company are estimating that as many as 80 construction jobs would be created albeit of a temporary nature. However, they forecast that there would be an additional 4 permanent positions created.
The 7.2 million KW of electricity equates to almost 10% of the 2021 renewable energy target of 75MW that Leeds City Council has been set.
The proposed site for the Haigh Hall Solar Farm was chosen as the land has a natural dip meaning that there is only a very small amount of impact from a visual point of view. It was pointed out by the company that there would be only a small amount of disruption whilst the solar panel farm was being constructed and there would be very little noise from the development once it was up and running.
The above proposed development is one of 6 applications being sought by the company with others being in the East Midlands, Wales, Cornwall and Devon. Should approval be forthcoming for all these they would provide an extra 100MW of electricity.
