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Government officials have approved plans for another solar farm in the Norfolk countryside.
The Planning Inspectorate reviewed Broadland District Council’s decision to reject OPDE UK’s plans for a 100-acre solar farm in Alderford, near Lenwade.
The council’s planning committee had blocked the scheme, known as Plough Meadow, at a meeting in March.
Councillors said the scheme would take some of the county’s best farmland out of production.
But Paul Thompson, the planning inspector, overturned the decision, saying the solar farm would help the government reach net zero by 2050.
The site in Alderford where a huge new solar farm could be built (Image: Google Maps)
He said while the solar farm would industrialise the landscape, there were several benefits to the scheme which mean it should be allowed to go ahead.
The solar farm will generate enough energy to power 8,000 homes, which the inspector said would be a substantial benefit.
The inspector added the proposals would contribute to reducing the effects of climate change.
The plans drew criticism from political leaders and local people, with 33 members of the public objecting.
Greg Peck, who was county councillor for Reepham until May’s elections, said he strongly objected “to vast swathes of plastic and glass” covering the Norfolk countryside.
There has been a rise in the number of solar farm applications across the county in recent months.
Among those are three nationally significant projects—the 4,000 acres High Grove solar farm between Dereham and Castle Acre, the 2,800-acre Droves solar farm and the 2,700 acre East Pye development.
The surge in renewable energy projects prompted Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman to warn that Norfolk faces a “wall” of solar farms.
Speaking in September, he said: “I was adding up the acreage and there’s about seven and a half thousand in west Norfolk and five or six thousand in south Norfolk, so that’s about 12,000 acres.
“That’s 250 Wembley stadiums and the size of the Norwich City Council area.
“This is going to be a wall of solar infrastructure across the A47. This is big.”
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