Plans given green-light for huge solar farm near Saltney

The development has been earmarked on land between Saltney and Broughton. This new planning consent means that the Welsh and English halves of the proposed site can now be joined to form a 30MW solar farm. 

The applicant, YnNi Newydd, is a community benefit society and it anticipates that the project, once constructed, will be the largest community-owned solar farm to date in the UK.

The site, known as Bretton Hall, covers 49 hectares of land currently used for sheep grazing, which will continue after construction.

The solar farm will have a generation capacity of 30MW and provide enough electricity to supply 8,400 homes. It is estimated that this will lead to an overall saving of 6,800 tonnes of CO2 every year during the 40-year lifetime of the project.

Where the site is located (Image: Bretton Hall Solar Farm website)

As the project will be owned by its membership, 100 per cent of the profits generated will be distributed to other projects providing community benefits.

Local people and organisations will be encouraged to take up shares as members in the society. Members will be part owners and receive interest on their shares, with the surplus profits, forecast to aggregate to £millions over the operational lifetime, going towards funding projects providing local, tangible community benefits.  

The site covers 120-acres of mostly grazing land - half in Flintshire and half in Cheshire (planning consented earlier this year) which is subject to occasional flooding. Separate planning applications had to be submitted to the statutory bodies on either side of the Welsh/English border, together with a detailed assessment of the environmental impacts.

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In Wales, the project is classed as a Development of National Significance and the land on the Flintshire side is designated as Green Belt. The planning inspector at the department for Planning and Environment Decisions Wales had to decide if there were sufficient environmental, social and economic justifications to overcome the presumption against development in the Green Belt.  

The planning inspector noted in the conclusion to his report that 'In reaching my decision, I have taken into account the requirements of sections 3 and 5 of the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. I consider that this decision is in accordance with the Act’s sustainable development principle through its contribution towards embedding our response to the climate and nature emergency in everything we do'."

YnNi Newydd will now be finalising its plans and securing investment for a first phase of construction, currently assumed to commence in 2025.  

YnNi Newydd is a member of Community Energy Wales, a not-for-profit membership organisation that provides assistance and a voice to community groups working on energy projects in Wales. 

Co-chief executive officers Leanne Wood and Ben Ferguson said: “We are delighted that this landmark community energy project, a collaboration between organisations in Wales and England, has now received approvals from both statutory authorities.

"This decision will be a great benefit to the local area and encouraging for the wider community energy sector in the UK. Community Energy Wales will be helping YnNi Newydd, Chester Community Energy and other partners to get this project constructed and operational, delivering sustainable economic, environmental and social benefits to the local community."