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- Revised planning application for Chelson Meadow solar submitted
Revised planning application for Chelson Meadow solar submitted
We are working with Plymouth City Council to build a solar farm at Chelson Meadow, which used to be a landfill site. This solar farm will be owned by the local community.
Our first plans were approved in 2022. Since then, we’ve listened to feedback and made some changes to make the design even better. We’ve now sent the new plans to the Council.
You can read the full revised application when it becomes available on the Plymouth City Council Planning Portal. We are expecting it to be publicly available later this week.
Here’s a simple summary of what’s changed:
Benefits for nature:
As a charity focussed on tackling the climate crisis, we are particularly aware of the need for all developments to do more to protect nature.
Our new plans are better for nature:
- Solar panels take up less space on the site
- This means more space is left for nature
- We are keeping a willow scrub area that we were going to remove before
- We are creating 3 new ponds to create diverse habitats and manage surface water
By law all new developments must achieve increased ‘biodiversity net gain’ of 10%, we’re delighted that our new design goes well beyond this target to achieve 26% improvement, and are committed to a 30 year management plan to continue to look after nature on our site.
How it will look:
Not dissimilar from the original designs. We haven’t increased the size of solar panels on site.
However we’ve moved some of the site equipment, such as transformers, to minimise ground disturbance and make the site work better.
Have a look at the new layout below:
Will the solar farm still work the same?
Yes! We’ve improved the layout and increased how much energy the solar farm can make by 2 megawatts.
We’re now using better solar panels than we had in 2022, so we can make more energy and leave more room for nature.
The solar farm will now make about 15 megawatts of clean electricity – enough to power around 4,300 homes!
What happens next?
The new plan is part of a process called a “Section 73 application.” This means the public can look at the plan and give their views.
We want to hear what you think and will be open and honest throughout.
Interested in investing in the project?
If the project goes ahead we plan to offer the community the opportunity to buy shares in the solar farm.
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