In some good news for those who, like me, oppose large scale solar PV parks on what assorted planning regulations refer to as "our best and most versatile agricultural land", the Planning Inspectorate have dismissed Inazin Solar's appeal against the decision of Teignbridge District Council to refuse planning permission for the 40 acre Fulford Solar Park at Gold's Cross Hill near Tedburn St. Mary.  The inspector needed to make two site visits since he:

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Whilst it doesn't say as much on their web site just yet, Cornwall County Council have effectively approved the application from German developers Kronos Solar to construct the 25 MW Canworthy Solar Farm on 50 hectares of land at Maxworthy near Launceston.  Cornwall planning committee have approved the scheme, but delegated responsibility for dotting all the Is and crossing all the Ts on the conditions associated with the application to their planning officers. This will make it the larget solar PV park in Cornwall, and in the UK for that matter.

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After a fair few emails and phone calls my penultimate set of objections to the second coming of the proposed Fulford Solar Park at Gold's Cross Hill near Tedburn St. Mary finally made their way onto the Teignbridge DC planning website this afternoon. If you enjoy a bit of a giggle download the three documents posted on Friday 23rd November.

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I've received a letter from Teignbridge District Council informing me that:

The [Fulford Solar Park] application will be considered by our Planning Committee on Monday 26 November 2012 in the Council Chamber, Forde House, Newton Abbot starting at 9:45 am.

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Much earlier today I dropped Kasia off at Bristol Airport, en route to Warsaw. As I was walking back to the car park, it suddenly struck me that I'd had a request for advice concerning the planning application for a large scale solar PV park near Bristol Airport.  Since it was a beautifully crisp clear morning, and I had my smartphone on me, I thought I'd take a short detour on my way back to Devon, and take a few pictures of the site in question.  I fired up my very own map of the area on my phone, and zoomed in. That revealed a public footpath across the site, so I wandered off along that in the direction of Garleys Wood, snapping as I went.

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It has just come to my attention that a couple of weeks ago Westmill Solar Park near Watchfield in Wiltshire was finally acquired by a local co-operative. According to their press release:

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Chinese solar photovoltaic module manufacturer China Sunergy announced last week that it had:

Completed the transactions to procure its first two solar park projects in the United Kingdom (UK). The two solar parks with a size of about 5 MW each are located in the southwest of Cornwall region. China Sunergy will arrange the construction of the projects, and then own and operate these two solar parks itself.

China Sunergy were rather coy about which two solar farms they had purchased, but according to the BBC the sites involved are Higher Tregarne near Falmouth and Causilgey Farm near Truro. German solar PV developer AEE Renewables originally obtained planning permission from Cornwall County Council to build the two 5 MW sites.

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Teignbridge District Council have now made their decision on Solar Power Generation's request for a screening opinion concerning a proposed 14 MW solar farm on land at the Ashcombe Estate in the Haldon Hills.  Unlike other recent requests for such opinions, in this case Teignbridge have decided that an Environmental Impact Assessment WILL be required.  They state their reasons for that decision as follows:

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As we reported recently, Lightsource Renewable Energy have applied for planning permission to build a 10.7 MW solar PV park on a 54 acre site just south of Exeter. Now:

A group of local people who are enthusiasts for renewable energy

have set up a web site with the aim of:

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Following their community consultation back in June, Lightsource Renewable Energy have just applied to Teignbridge District Council for planning permission for the:

Construction and operation of a 10.7MW Solar Photovoltaic Farm, including ancillary buildings and security system

The application form states they propose to do this on 54 acres of land at Bowhay Farm, Shillingford Abbot. Whilst this may be correct as far as the Royal Mail are concerned, we locals know that the land in question is actually closer to Dunchideock than Shillingford. In fact if I jump up and down at the top of my garden I can just about make out the far corner of the site. If I then walk up to the top of the hill I get an extremely good view of it. Whilst these views are very familiar to me, it seems that the planners at Lightsource are unfamiliar with them, since neither appears in their Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment document.

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