PLANS for a giant solar farm stretching across the boundaries of three Gwent authorities have been unveiled.
The 123.3 hectare site across 12 parcels of land would have solar panels on frames mounted on the ground with a capacity to generate 46 megawatts of electricity and as such a decision on whether to approve or reject the plan will fall to Welsh Government ministers.
A substation for the proposed plant would be located on land within the Welsh Water treatment plant near Ponthir.
The 12 parcels of land are east of Ponthir and north of Caerleon and across the boundaries of Monmouthshire, Torfaen and Newport. Some parts of the proposed site are within the Torfaen and Newport special landscape areas while there are also numerous footpaths crossing the fields.
Applicants Bluestone Court Farm Ltd has submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment screening request to the Welsh Government’s planning body, Planning and Environment Decisions Wales, or PEDW.
It will have to decide whether the detailed assessment is required but the applicants state they do not believe it is necessary due to the limited impact of the proposals, which they say can be managed through “careful design and masterplanning”, and that panels would be in place for 40 years after which the land could be returned to “greenfield/agriculture”.
The applicants also state although the land use permission would be changed some existing agricultural activities such as livestock grazing could continue over the period the farm is in use.
The full planning application is, according to the applicants, likely to include technical reports including glint and glare, noise and landscape and visual impact assessments along with ecological, flooding and heritage reports.
The Environmental Impact Assessment request states: “We believe these supporting documents will provide the Welsh Ministers with all the necessary information concerning the effects of the proposed development, without the need for an EIA, so to enable them to make an informed decision concerning the proposals.”
The application states there are three grade II listed buildings within one killometre of the site and four ancient monuments within the surrounding area while most of the site is within ‘flood zone A the area considered to have the lowest probability of flooding”.
A small part of the site, next to the Candwr Brook, is within flood zone B, which are areas known to have flooded, and zone C, an area without significant flood defence infrastructure.
The solar panels will be mounted on simple metal frames, or tables, pile-driven into the ground, eliminating the need for substantial foundations, and could operate with a fixed tilt to the south or on single axis tracking tables.
The height of the tables above ground can range from a maximum of four meters to a minimum of 0.5 meters when using fixed structures with two vertical panels and a table tilt angle of 30 degrees. Frames will be spaced at a minimum distance of seven meters from each other.
A decision on whether an environmental impact assessment is required is expected to be made in no more than 90 days from when the request was submitted on April 7.