Lightsource Seek Permission for a 10.7 MW Solar PV Farm Near Dunchideock

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.

Be that as it may, Bowhay Farm has now moved from the "Screening Opinion" section to the "Planning Applications" section of our  interactive map and list of large scale solar PV projects in South West England.

The space thus vacated has swiftly been filled thanks to the labours of another group of solar PV planners wandering through the Haldon Hills with their cameras in hand.  Solar Power Generation Limited (or SPGL for short) have asked Teignbridge District Council to provide them with a screening opinion concerning a proposed 14 MW solar farm on land at the Ashcombe Estate. As a consequence of all this toing and froing, this is how our home made map of the Exeter area looks this evening:

Large Scale Solar PV projects around Exeter in October 2012