Firm’s plan for 87,000 panels on 185-acre solar farm near Beverley

Albanwise Synergy Ltd, part of agribusiness Albanwise Wallace Estates Group, has submitted plans to East Riding Council (ERC) to build the 40MW farm with 40MW battery storage on 185 acres of agricultural land.

The council has said it supports the principle of the development as long as there are “no unacceptable impacts”.

Field House Solar Farm would comprise 87,000 south-facing solar panels, around 3m (9ft 10in) high, with access tracks, underground cabling, battery storage units and perimeter fences.

The site would be accessed from a private road off the A1035.

In documents submiited online, developers said they would be doing more planting to provide further screening and ensure views of the scheme are “localised and intermittent”.

They said the scheme would help cut the risk of power cuts – as seen in 2019 when two wind farms, Hornsea, off the Yorkshire coast and Little Bartford in Cambridgeshire shut down almost simultaneously.

The farm would be able to store electricity at times of low demand and release it back into the National Grid when there is high demand. During the sixth-month construction period there would be just under 1,000 lorry deliveries to the site.

The plans also state that it would improve biodoversity as it includes a wildflower meadow and species-rich grassland planting across the site, proving food and habitat for local wildlife.

For the UK to achieve net zero carbon by 2050, the Committee on Climate Chance says up to four times as many renewable sources of energy will have to be built as there are today.