The Applicant for the proposed development will be Ridge Clean Energy Limited.
In a document submitted by the energy company, they request an EIA screening opinion from Rushcliffe Borough Council prior to then submitting a planning application in the future.
EIA Screening opinion: Screening is the process of identifying whether an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is necessary or not. The procedure is used to determine whether a proposed project is likely to have significant effects on the environment. It should normally take place at an early stage in the design of the project.
Details of the proposals are then laid out in further documents.
The location of the solar farm andBattery Energy Storage System (BESS) is on farmland to the south of Clifton and south-west of Ruddington and is named Fair Oaks Renewable Energy Park.
Documents sate that the proposed solar farm would have an installed AC capacity of up to 49.9MW (determined by the sum of the inverter AC ratings).
The panels would be ground-mounted to a maximum height above ground of approximately 3.5m angled at around 20-25 degrees facing south.
It is currently estimated prior to layout optimisation that the solar farm will be sufficient to offset the equivalent annual electricity needs of approximately 16600 Rushcliffe homes (based on average domestic consumption per household of 3 900kWh (DBEIS, 2020)).
The are of the land comprises approximately 296 acres.
