Councillors have objected to plans to build a solar farm covering more than 1,000 hectares of land on the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire border.
The application seeks a 60-year development order to build the solar farm, covering a total of 1,409 hectares of land – with 206 hectares falling in Lincolnshire.
The proposal had been put forward by applicant One Earth Solar Farm Limited to build solar panels, on-site battery storage, on-site inverters, transformers, switchgears, on-site substations and underground cabling to connect to a proposed new substation at High Marnham.
The new substation is not part of this application and would require separate planning permission.
Ørsted and PS Renewables are the companies behind the development.
The companies said the solar panels are expected to generate 740 MW of solar power, which would be carried via a 400 kV, 2.5 km underground cable to an upgraded substation at High Marnham.
One of the on-site substations would be on the east of the River Trent in Lincolnshire, and the other would be on the west of the river in Nottinghamshire.
An underground cable would cross the River Trent to connect to the High Marnham substation.
The development has an expected lifespan of 60 years, after which it would be decommissioned.
The companies said this project would help the UK transition towards Net Zero.
At a planning and regulation meeting on Monday (15 July), councillors were asked to share their views on the proposal.
Infrastructure Manager at the county council, Justine Foster, said that the plans would negatively impact the landscape.
She said: “The development would have a significant impact on the landscape. It would transform the landscape and would affect the tranquillity and character of the area.”
Councillors were told that 56% of the development would be built on land which is in a flood zone in Lincolnshire.
Cllr Martin Hill (Con) raised concerns about farmland being lost.
He said: “There will be a massive loss to the local economy because these solar panels are mostly built in China. We don’t build them in this country.
“They will be brought over, assembled in the fields. We’re talking about 3,000 acres here across the whole of the application. That means 3,000 acres of productive agricultural land will be lost for 60 years.
“Who knows what’s going to happen in 30 years’ time with wars. We nearly ran out of food in the Second World War, we don’t want to be there again.”
Cllr Hill went on to say that he didn’t believe that profits made would go to the local economy.
He added: “It won’t be British workers because, as we pointed out, they will probably come from abroad. There won’t be profits going to British companies, it will go abroad. So there will be a net loss of jobs.”
Cllr Christopher Reeve (Reform UK) said he was concerned that the company could go bust before the site was decommissioned.
He said: “Any company can go bust, and I would like to see evidence that this company has put money forward to decommission the site after it’s reached its lifespan.”
Cllr Marianne Overton, who leads the Lincolnshire Independents, said: “If the Government was really going to reduce our emissions, it would have put solar panels on all new buildings. They’ve not done this yet.”
But Cllr Neil Murray (Labour) had a different opinion.
He said: “I support the generation of renewable energy. Anybody who thinks climate change isn’t real needs to think again.”
Lincolnshire County Council will inform the One Earth Solar Examining Authority that councillors have objected to this application.
