A massive solar farm planned in the south of Rhondda Cynon Taf could generate enough power for the equivalent of a small town if approved. An application has been submitted to build a “solar park” on farmland between Church Village and Treforest which could power around 7,000 homes in what the planning report said it is a development of "national significance".
RPS Group Ltd, the agent for the applicant Elgin Energy EsCo Ltd, said that the Maes Mawr Solar Farm will have a capacity of approximately 30MW (MegaWatts) with the power generated being fed into the electricity distribution network. The proposal is fully reversible at the end of its 40-year life and will be decommissioned the land returned to agricultural use.
The power generated will be enough to power approximately 7,000 typical family homes and result in an approximate saving of 1,124 tCO2e (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) a year. The company said that if the project is approved, the solar farm will contribute to the Welsh Government’s 2030 target of renewably generating electricity equal to 70% of its consumption.
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The proposal is to build a 30MW solar farm comprising solar panels and frames, inverters, transformers, cabling and a substation at Maes Mawr. It would also include a new access, internal access tracks, fencing, security measures, underground on site cabling, and a grid connection cable which will connect the site to the point of connection at the existing Western Power Distribution (WPD) substation to the north east within the Treforest Industrial Estate.
The facility would have a lifespan of 40 years and would be fully reversible at the end of its 40-year life, the planning report said. Although the application will be considered by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s planning and development committee on Thursday, this is to submit a local impact report to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) as an inspector will make the final decision on the application.
A decision lies outside the council’s jurisdiction but the local impact report will set out the likely impact of the proposed development on the area. The report has to provide a factual, objective view of the likely impact of the proposed development on the area based on Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council’s local knowledge and robust evidence of local issues and in terms of their positive, neutral or negative effects.
The application site is located on land between Church Village and Treforest Industrial Estate. To the east of the site is main railway line linking Cardiff and the Valleys whilst the A473 lies to the west. The site includes around 40 hectares (98.8 acres) and is made up of several parcels of land.
The parcels are an “irregular” shape and are made up of a series of agricultural fields of different sizes which are mainly used for pasture grazing. Field boundaries are made up of trees, hedgerows and some woodland. The application site has historically been agricultural land certainly since the late nineteenth century, the planning report said.
In its conclusion, the report said it is considered that the proposed development will have a negative impact in landscape visual terms but that it is considered that these impacts can be reduced to relatively minor impacts with appropriate mitigation. It said that the impacts of the proposed development on interests of ecology and nature conservation can, with appropriate mitigation, achieve a neutral impact but the council’s ecologist doubts this, as he believes that the applicants have only justified their stance in respect of part of the site.
Other key impacts tend to be neutral in nature or even potentially beneficial, the report said. It added that: “Planning Policy Wales 11 and Future Wales: The National Plan 2040 clearly offer strong support for the provision of renewable energy projects across Wales, and it is clear from those policy documents that there is a strong presumption in favour of such projects to the point where adverse impacts have to be particularly severe for a refusal of consent to be justified."
The report suggested that the adverse impacts are relatively minor and advised that there were no objections should the planning inspector grant planning permission. The local impact report suggests a number of conditions that could be applied regarding how it is delivered.
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