A plea has been made to extend the lifetime of a new solar farm next to Formby Bypass which could provide enough electricity to power 3,000 homes per year.
Planning permission was granted in June 2020 for the facility to be built on 8.16 hectares of land at Tip Field, south of North Moss Lane in Formby, near RAF Woodvale.
Taiyo Power & Storage Limited has now applied to Sefton Council for planning permission to increase the lifetime of the solar farm to 40 years from when it is constructed.
The firm says the development will help to provide green energy into the National Grid, at a time when Sefton Council has declared a Climate Emergency.
The solar farm would generate sufficient energy for over 3,000 homes per annum through its lifetime and is projected to result in a reduction of approximately 3,208 tonnes per annum of carbon dioxide per year when compared to electricity from fossil fuels, which represents a significant saving.
The site has been used as pasture for livestock grazing.
The land was used as a refuse tip during the 19th century, as reflected in the site name. As a result of its previous use, the land is elevated between 3m and 3.5m above the surrounding low-lying pasture.
The proposed development comprises a 9MWp solar photovoltaic (PV) array, with associated infrastructure to enable the export of renewable energy to the National Grid.
The scheme is anticipated to generate approximately 5,038MWh of renewable energy per year.
In its application, Taiyo Power & Storage Limited said:
“During the proposed extended period of operation, the solar farm will continue to make a positive contribution to meeting renewable energy generation targets, reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil fuelled electricity generation and contribute to security of supply.
“In doing so, it can assist Sefton District Council in responding to the Climate Emergency, which they declared in July 2019 to highlight the importance and significance of climate change and biodiversity.
“The site benefits from extant planning permission. The application was granted full planning permission, with conditions, on 23rd June 2020 for ground mounted solar photovoltaic panels and associated works. The development has a total capacity of circa 5.62MW.
“A Planning Condition states that the solar farm use must be discontinued on or before 31st December 2046.
“The solar farm is not operational, so as yet there has been no confirmed start date from which the temporary permission as per Condition 1 may be taken from.
“Taiyo Power & Storage Limited have purchased the site and have been working with the relevant Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC), to confirm the design and infrastructure required to construct the solar farm.
“The EPC enables Tip Field to be energised and generate much needed renewable energy to help the country reach net zero by 2050.
“The solar sector is developing rapidly with significant technological advancement, which allows solar farms to operate much more efficiently and for longer periods of time. The Applicant is seeking to increase the period that the solar farm is permitted to operate up to 40 years, which is the now standard operation period of a solar farm from the date of first export.
“Planning permission states the solar farm shall be discontinued and the land restored to its former condition as grassed grazing land on or before 31st December 2046. This application seeks to extend the operational lifetime to 40 years from the date of the first export of electricity.
“This application takes the opportunity to extend the operational period to maximise the renewable energy generated from the installed energy infrastructure to assist in the UK’s policy requirement to be net zero by 2050 and make use of the more efficient technology that the solar sector now utilises. An increase in the operational period will deliver additional significant benefits from the solar farm.
“At the end of the temporary planning permission, the solar farm would be decommissioned and removed from the site and the land could once again be returned to agricultural production.”
The size of the development will comprise 16,500 number of 300Wp solar PV modules, with rows of panels which will not exceed 2m in height approximately.
The firm said that “due to the panel height not exceeding the approximate height of 2.2m the visual impact of this proposal on the wider landscape will be limited whilst utilising what is currently poor agricultural land.”
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