The green light has been given to plans to build a huge solar farm the size of fifteen football pitches in Widnes. The new solar farm will be located on a former golf course that has been assessed as contaminated land. It will give a fresh lease of life to the area, which is unsuitable for building or public use. It’s another example of how the UK is really moving ahead with renewables, whether that’s in the form of solar panels in Cheltenham or biomass boilers in London.
The rise of solar
Solar energy is on the up, supported by government grants that make it more accessible. From large land arrays to rooftop solar panels Cheltenham, offered by businesses such as https://gsmlimited.com/services/solar-panels/cheltenham, the pace of solar investment continues to grow. This new project will be an innovative use of land which otherwise has little public value.
New solar farm signed off
The plans for the new solar farm were signed off by Halton Council, for the installation of over 7,200 solar panels. Together, these will generate 4MW of clean energy, with the power being channelled into council properties such as the town HQ, and a new leisure centre. The council already uses clean energy from a smaller solar array on neighbouring land, but the new 27-acre plant will increase capacity by 400%.
A new use for damaged land
The former council-owned golf course was forced to close in 2004 after the Health Protection Agency discovered arsenic in the soil and leachate, a contaminated liquid product. There were originally plans to clean up the site for public use in 2016 but these never materialised. The land contamination came from an adjoining area of wasteland.
The new solar array will take around 13 weeks to build and then should be operational for 40 years, with a six-month period for decommissioning. It’s the latest example of how public bodies are forging ahead with plans to move local areas to net zero, even in the face of the UK missing its national targets.
