Residents living near proposed Desborough Airfield solar farm invited to information event
Residents living near to a proposed solar farm and battery storage facility on Desborough Airfield are being invited to a community presentation event.
The public presentation is due to take place on Sunday, June 14 at Wilbarston Village Hall hosted by Wilbarston Parish Council and Friends of the Airfield and Valley from 4pm until 7pm.
Residents from the village and surrounding communities will be updated by the parish council on the Innova revised 99.9 MW solar array and 100MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) proposal on RAF Desborough Airfield with substations beyond on the Welland valley side.
Cllr Andrew Deacon, chairman of Wilbarston Parish Council, said: “This is a chance for the public to examine the proposal in depth and come to an informed conclusion as to how this development will change the area and for any questions for the developer to be put forward.
"We look forward to welcoming all users of the airfield and Jurassic Way as well as the neighbouring villagers.”
Guides produced by the Friends of the Airfield and the Valley (FAV) will be available to give an understanding of the implications of the proposals.
FAV has already held a ‘non-partisan’ ramble to the airfield to highlight the ‘loss of wildlife and biodiversity as well as threats to parks, rivers, woodlands and green spaces’.
Innova Renewables is preparing a planning application for the site and is currently preparing details that will form part of a public consultation, that will take place prior to submission of the full planning application.
A spokesman for Innova said: “The proposed development would support the UK’s transition to Net Zero and increase the use of renewable energy by supporting the supply of energy to the National Grid.
“The site has been carefully selected and designed through a detailed assessment process. This initially considered grid availability, land availability, environmental designations, planning policy, access, and impacts on landscape, heritage, agricultural land quality, and ecological matters.
“A team of expert consultants has been appointed to undertake site-specific assessments, which are currently ongoing. Following the results of these surveys, consultation with the council, and a public consultation, iterative design work will be undertaken prior to submission of the full planning application.”
Innova says that Desborough Airfield Solar Site’s landscaping planning, seeding and habitat creation plans will ‘focus on native species’ that will ‘contribute to securing long term biodiversity net gain across the site’.
The solar farm has been designed to leave green spaces around the site boundaries and between the rows of panels to ‘avoid shading and maximise electricity generation’, leaving the majority of the solar array as ‘uncovered grassland’.
RAF Desborough is a former Royal Air Force station that opened in September 1943 and closed in the 1950s.