Frequently Asked Questions

A well-designed solar farm provides many opportunities for local ecological and biodiversity improvement particularly on land that has previously been intensively farmed. Evolution Power is committed to protecting and enhancing the existing biodiversity within the boundary of the project site.

Measures could include protecting existing habitats and creating new habitats to benefit the local wildlife, protecting and enhancing existing hedgerows, installing bird and bat boxes on the site, and sowing wildflower meadows. We welcome suggestions from the local community about planting and other environmental benefits we could implement on site.

The development of solar farms does not replace the agricultural use of the land. Solar farms typically take up a very small proportion of the land that comprises the site, providing opportunities for agricultural use to continue, such as sheep grazing amongst the solar panels. 

The land involved is minimal in the context of local and national food production and allows clean energy to be generated at greater scale and efficiency than rooftop alternatives.

Solar farms also provide valuable long-term secured income for farmers, to support the industry to continue food production on other parts of their land.  

Evolution Power always aims to enhance local amenity and provide a benefit for the local community. As such, the project will provide an inflation linked community benefit fund for the lifetime of the project to be used locally for social and environmental projects.

During the project's operational lifespan biodiversity in the area will be greatly enhanced and the soil condition will be improved. The lack of intensive farming on the site will encourage new flora and fauna to flourish. Public access to the land will remain.

A biodiversity scheme will be prepared to ensure that the project contributes to landscape and ecological improvements and therefore provides a biodiversity net gain.

New Ash Green Solar Farm would be a multi-million-pound investment into the local area.

As a significant local business, New Ash Green Solar will be contributing substantial business rates on an annual basis to the local authority.

There will be opportunities for the involvement of local companies, and local residents will be able to access employment opportunities.

Solar PV is an effective technology around the country. Solar can already produce as much as 30% of UK electricity at different points in the year, and in 2023 provided 4.7% of the UK’s total supply. Even in winter, the technology is powerful and effective. For example, at one point in February 2022, solar was providing more than 20% of the UK’s electricity.

Over the last few years the price of solar has dropped around the world. The bulk of this drop has been driven by the fall in the price of solar PV modules over time, which has fallen by 90% since 2000. At the same time, the efficiency of solar panels and other system components continues to improve, making solar the most affordable electricity in history and the most affordable renewable energy in the UK.

Ground-mounted solar projects can deliver major benefits to the environment and provide a range of environmental and biodiversity benefits. In addition to providing clean, affordable energy, they can improve local biodiversity by supporting new and existing plant and animal life. Well-designed and managed solar farms contribute to a range of ecosystem services. They can support sustainable agriculture, regulate air quality, mitigate flood risk, generate new habitats, and reduce carbon emissions.

Solar panels themselves are set on posts, meaning there is minimal disturbance to the ground (typically around 1-2% of the total site area). This means the rest of the land is available for developers to take measures that actively improve the local environment, and provide a range of ecological benefits, including an increase over time in the local abundance and variety of plants, pollinators, birds, and other wildlife.

All solar farms in the UK currently account for 0.08% of total land use. To meet the government’s net zero target, the Climate Change Committee estimates that we will need 70GW of solar by 2035. Our analysis indicates this would mean solar farms would at most account for less than 0.5% of UK land – less than the amount currently used for golf courses. *Figures from Solar Energy UK 2024

Solar panels are fundamentally designed to absorb as much light as possible, so glint and glare is rarely a problem. Panels are designed to absorb light, as the more light that a panel absorbs, the more power it will generate. This is why the industry has developed high-tech anti-reflective coatings, and ultra-transparent glass to improve panel efficiency.

As with all manufactured products, some carbon is emitted in the manufacture of solar panels. However, the claim that solar panels produce more carbon than they save is false.

Objective analysis shows that the average carbon payback period for solar panels is 1-4 years. This means that over their lifetime, typically 40 years, each panel will generate zero-carbon and zero-pollution electricity for decades after any carbon emitted in its production has been paid back. Solar projects save thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions over their lifetime.

In most cases, 99% of a solar panel is recyclable, and there are well established industrial processes to do this. A solar panel is made of a frame (typically aluminium), glass, crystalline silicon solar cells, and copper wiring, all of which can be extracted, separated, and recycled or reused. The remaining one percent is an encapsulant material which bonds the layers of a panel together. 

There are organisations around the UK and Europe specialising in solar recycling, and they are working with solar developers to minimise electrical waste and recycle old panels in line with the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations. This means the environmental impact of decommissioning a solar system is minimised. 

A solar farm is classified as a temporary change of use, and once decommissioned and removed the site will revert back to greenfield agricultural land. There is no planning precedent set.

A solar farm is granted planning permission for a set number of years, after which it is required to be dismantled. To reduce local visual impact additional vegetation screening may be included in the design. On a national level, if the required target of 70GW solar by 2035 is achieved this would use less than 0.5% of UK agricultural land.

A solar farm does not emit energy radiation and therefore cannot interfere with equipment such as mobile phones, heart monitors, pace makers, hearing aids, or TV reception.  

Solar PV technology does not use any moving parts, and in many cases nature and solar complement each other, with insects, sheep and small wild animals living side by side. A comprehensive noise assessment will be submitted as part of the planning application to confirm there will be no significant local noise impacts.

While CCTV cameras are often used to secure solar farm projects, the cameras in solar farms are fixed - mounted to face inwards into the solar park and not outside.

Solar farms are not lit during operations, except in limited areas during an emergency.

The security fence will be deer-proof type fencing, that is typically used in an agricultural setting. Gaps will be included to allow small mammals to move freely across the site.

Flood risk does not usually increase with the installation of solar farms. A flooding assessment will be submitted as part of the planning application to confirm there will be no significant local flooding impacts.