Campaigners fighting against plans for a Northumberland solar farm fear the development will ruin their "treasured rural landscape".
Exagen Limited has lodged a pre-planning application for a renewable energy park at Highfield, near Whittonstall that could comprise between 75,000 and 100,000 solar panels.
Known as Highfield Energy Park, it would be a ground-mounted solar farm that would have the ability to export 49.9 megawatts of energy.
Residents are vehemently opposed to the proposals saying Exagen has failed to consult with them over the plans, and fear it will ruin the landscape and have a negative impact on wildlife.
But bosses planning the solar farm say they are listening to the concerns of the community and want to work with them before submitting a full planning application.
Adam Brown, who is part of the campaign team, said: “Exagen are proposing to destroy our treasured rural landscape with a development which has been designed simply for monetary gain at any cost.
"The cumulative impact of the hugely visible and poorly screened battery storage facility and the proposed energy park will completely industrialise and ruin our rural area, and once more, we as a community will be suffering at the hands of yet more profiteering."
Campaigners say the effect the park would have on our local area would be devastating to the community, wildlife and ancient woodlands and said it will be destroyed by the scheme.
Adam added: “It’s outrageous that Exagen thinks they can simply fast track this project, without commissioning a proper ecology and habitat EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment). We feel that simply isn’t acceptable to our or any other community."
Adam said conservationists, local communities and leaders of the industry know that solar parks are relatively inefficient and thus cannot be major contributors to the future of renewable energy generation and in addition, they are highly damaging to the local community.
Mark Rowcroft, Exagen’s development director, said the project is still in an early design stage and they have gone to the local communities to discuss the plans and seek comments.
Mr Rowcroft said: "We are very much seeking views of locally affected people at this key stage of the project.
"We have made more land available for development than we needed so there is very much scope to listen to people and amend the scheme to considerably reduce some of the concerns of those who live close by or use the site for recreational purposes."
Mr Rowcroft said the existing woodland will provide substantial screening and a landscape and visual assessment will be carried out, with any additional landscaping identified.
He added: "We have used independent ecological consultants with experience of working on large scale renewable energy projects.
"All ecological information will be reviewed alongside the public consultation comments to refine the design in order to avoid ecological impacts where possible."
But Mr Rowcroft dismissed claims solar farms are "relatively inefficient" and that the government considers it has an important role to play in the Energy Strategy.
He said: "Solar provides one of the cheapest, quickest to deliver forms of energy and alongside energy storage is an important part of the future energy mix. Technological developments have meant the efficiency of panels has increased massively over recent years."
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