Solar farm approved for development

An authority has approved the development of its own solar farm on some of its agricultural land.

West Berkshire Council's £18.6m Grazeley Solar Farm could produce enough electricity to power at least 6,000 homes, council leader Jeff Brooks said.

Planning permission has already been granted for the site at Bloomfield Hatch Farm, between Mortimer and Grazeley, and the council now expects to make a profit of about £10m over its 40-year lifetime.

Brooks told the BBC: "We've got the land, we've got the planning permission, and we've got the slot in the grid. It's thumbs up all round here."

This week two council meetings discussed the scheme, which has been on and off the table for at least five years and was expected to make a profit of about £400,000 annually over 30 years..

But details of the finances have been kept under wraps, despite the rising costs, which were around £10m at inception, because the council said the information is commercially sensitive.

Brooks has hinted that the scheme could, at least in part, come into community ownership with a public share offering, as recommended by the resources and place scrutiny committee on Tuesday.

The proposal will require capital funding to be considered through the council's budget setting process.

The council admits the financial position remains highly sensitive to future electricity prices, borrowing costs, construction costs, generation performance, discount rate assumptions and the proportion of energy that can be used or sold locally.

Stuart Gourley, executive member for the environment, said they were working with experts to "deliver the project for both the financial benefits for residents, and the environmental benefits for residents".

Recent modelling has also considered the impact of local government reorganisation and the possibility that energy may only be sleeved to West Berkshire Council at the time of generation rather than across a wider future council estate of Ridgeway Council, which for the time being has been paused.

The formation of Ridgeway Council was expected to create greater electricity demand, increasing the opportunity to use more of the power generated by Grazeley within the council's own estate.

Brooks said he was "confident" the farm would make a profit.

He added: "But let's think about the social benefits, the net zero benefits... 35,000 solar panels, 20 MW of energy.

"It's powerful... and it's council-owned land which is used for agriculture at the moment, which is bringing in a tiny amount of money for our taxpayers."

To meet grid connection deadlines, the site needs to be ready by December 2027.

But Brooks described it as a "straightforward" project that would take about 12 to 15 months to set up and be up and running in time.