Yorkshire’s largest solar farm goes live with enough energy to power 20,000 homes

Skeeby solar farm consists of over 93,000 bi-facial solar panels installed across 166 acres of farmland near Richmond. Its owners say it will produce enough clean energy to power 20,000 homes.

Planning permission was granted for the £39.4m scheme two years ago despite widespread objections from local councils and residents that it would be a “blot on the landscape”.

Richmondshire District Council's planning committee received 117 objections, as well as an online petition signed by 650 people.

A total of 97 people were in support, and a petition backing the farm on the grounds of energy security attracted 50 signatures.

The 55MW solar farm is owned by Atrato Onsite Energy and will supply OVO Energy’s Greener Tariff customers with 100 per cent renewable energy via a three-year offtake agreement.

Solar farms currently cover less than 0.1 per cent of the UK's land. That figure is set to rise to 0.3 per cent, according to trade association Solar Energy UK, if the UK’s Energy Security and Net Zero Strategy’s ambitions for a five-fold increase up to 70GW are realised by 2035.

However while the percentages appear low, it has not stopped a heated debate about the amount of agricultural land being taken out of food production.

Gurpreet Gujral, Managing Director at Atrato Partners, which also does rooftop solar projects for Tesco supermarkets and Amazon distribution centres, said: “I think we have to take a step back and see how many solar farms there are. I think there are more golf courses than solar farms in the UK.

"There's obviously a balance (between food production and energy). I don't think that is what the solar industry is competing for.

"There's scope to grow to build and develop solar without it impacting the most arable (productive) land which should quite rightly be used for arable production.

"I don't think it's a zero sum game. I think there's enough capacity for both to co-exist."

As part of the planning process, an ecological assessment was made which suggested that with “habitat enhancement activities” including the planting of extra hedgerows, the land could see a major uplift in biodiversity.

However farmer Keith Richardson, who owns land next door, and is a Skeeby parish councillor thinks it is a waste of land which has grown corn, potatoes, oil seed rape and barley.

He said: “I think it is horrendous. It is good agricultural land gone to waste. They say they will revert it in 40 years time – I don’t see how they can – within two or three years it will be full of weeds and nettles.

"I don’t know why they can’t put panels on all those big farm buildings.

"We are on the entrance to the Dales – people are going to say what the flipping heck is this lot for?”

And retired farmer John Budden, also a parish councillor, said there were proposals for an extension at Bromtpon, which would adjoin the Skeeby farm, with another at Tunstall. He said: “We farmed adjacent for 60 years and our land exceeded national average yields. They say it will turn to agriculture in 40 years – we know it won’t.”