There is now widespread recognition that the UK, and the rest of the world, is in a climate emergency. Renewable energy has a significant part to play in meeting the UK’s targets of eliminating fossil fuels from the UK electricity market by 2035 and achieving net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. Reports have shown that in order to achieve net zero by 2050 the UK will need to quadruple its low carbon electricity generation. Solar energy has an important part to play in helping reach these targets, as well as providing a balanced energy mix, and it is estimated that 40GW¹ of solar will be needed by 2030 to stay on track with net zero ambitions, with 63%² (or 25GW) of this coming from large scale ground mounted solar farms.

The UK Government’s Energy Security Plan, published in March 2023, states “Energy security necessarily entails the smooth transition to abundant, low-carbon energy. If we do not decarbonise, we will be less energy secure”. Furthermore, it calls for energy to be “cheap, clean and British”. The government has also established a solar government-industry taskforce and have committed to publishing a solar roadmap setting out a clear step by step deployment trajectory to achieve 70GW of solar by 2035. The report recognises that ground-mounted solar is one of the cheapest forms of electricity generation and is readily deployable at scale.

Our current power system still relies heavily on fossil fuels, such as gas. The volatile price of these is the reason that bills have increased so rapidly in recent months. The need to rapidly scale up home grown energy has become even more urgent.

Solar is a free and inexhaustible resource which has an important role to play as part of a balanced energy mix. Large scale solar, alongside other renewable technologies, is now the cheapest source of electricity generation³ making solar development not only beneficial for the environment but also for bill payers. If consented, Nuneham Solar Farm would be capable of producing clean, green electricity for approximately 13,000⁴ homes as well as saving around 20,000⁵ tonnes of CO2 emissions compared to the equivalent fossil fuel generation, every year.

The Nuneham Solar Farm proposal has the potential to deliver a 70.94% biodiversity net gain (BNG) for habitat units, a BNG net gain of 61.48% for hedgerow units and a BNG net gain of 24.32% for watercourse units. The BNG could be delivered through the measures proposed in the Landscape Masterplan which accompanies the planning application. As well as providing screening to reduce potential visibility, the planting will provide wildlife corridors and vital resources for mammals, birds, and insect species. Included in the Landscape Masterplan is the creation of over 2.7km of new native species-rich hedgerow lengths, accompanied with new native tree planting along hedgerow lengths, plus over 400m of enhancement to existing hedgerow.

The solar farm has been specifically designed to be dual-purpose allowing continued agricultural use in the form of sheep grazing and the production of renewable energy. There would be no long-term loss or reclassification of Green Belt land as a result of the development which is temporary in nature, and the site can be returned to agricultural use at the end of the solar project. An Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) survey accompanies the planning application showing more than 95% of the land that would be used by the solar farm, has been classified as Subgrade 3b and is not considered Best and Most Versatile.

The solar farm could deliver direct benefit to the area - generating jobs during construction and decommissioning. Inward investment can be significant as a range of services will be required including haulage, on-site welfare facilities, refuse and recycling facilities, transport and local accommodation for construction workers. In addition, the solar farm would deliver business rates annually for the life of the project, helping to fund vital local services for all local residents.

If, having read the above, you would like to support the project, or submit any kind of representation, you can do so by submitting a comment online via the South Oxfordshire District Council Public Access website. The planning reference is P24/S1336/FUL and should be included in all correspondence.

^{1 https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/CCC-Accelerated-Electrification-Vivid-Economics-Imperial-1.pdf}

^{2 https://solarenergyuk.org/resource/lighting-the-way-making-net-zero-a-reality-with-solar-energy/}

^{3 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6556027d046ed400148b99fe/electricity-generation-costs-2023.pdf}

^{4 The homes equivalent figure has been calculated by taking the predicted annual electricity generation of the site (based on RES assessments Nuneham Solar Farm has a predicted capacity factor of 11.2%) and dividing this by the annual average electricity figures from DESNZ showing that the annual GB average domestic household consumption is 3,239 kWh (January 2024).}

^{5 Carbon reduction is calculated by multiplying the anticipated average amount of electricity generated by Nuneham per year by the number of tonnes of carbon which fossil fuels would have produced to generate the same amount of electricity using DESNZ’s “all non-renewable fuels” emissions statistic of 424 tonnes of carbon dioxide per GWh of electricity supplied in the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (July 2023) Table 5.1.}