Fears island will turn black if mega solar farm the size of 1,800 football fields goes ahead
A MASSIVE solar farm planned on Anglesey has been labelled an “absolute eyesore” that will deter tourists and deplete farmland.
Almost 2% of the entire island has been earmarked for the massive development, prompting fears it and other solar parks are “destroying the countryside” and turning Anglesey “black from the panels”.
Lightsource bp wants to build its solar farm across three sites to help the UK reach its net zero targets. With a capacity of 350MW and covering 12.34 sq km - around 1,800 football fields, it will produce enough energy to power 133,106 homes - more properties than there are across the whole of Anglesey, Gwynedd, and Conwy.
A local Green Party activist said “hard choices” are needed in the battle against climate change. But online reaction has been one of horror as the scale of the proposed wind farm hits home.
If built, the Maen Hir development would be almost five times that of the UK’S current biggest solar schemes, 75MW Llanwern solar farm, Newport, and 72.2MW Shotwick Solar Park on Deeside, Flintshire.
Maen Hir is by no means the largest solar farm being proposed in Britain: at 840MW and costing £900m, Botley
West, on the Blenheim Estate in Oxfordshire, is almost three times bigger again.
This will have 2.5m solar panels and will take over three hours to walk from one end to the other.
A local campaign group, Stop Botley West, warns people they can “say goodbye to your countryside” if the development proceeds. Now there are similar stirrings of opposition on Anglesey.
Referring to the scheme’s panels, a family living in the proposed Maen Hir area said it will “make a beautiful area look like the Black Sea”.
Lightsource bp aims to work with Grwp Llandrillo Menai and Bangor University to “create educational opportunities”.
And as well as creating new jobs, the company has pledged to improve local recreational and amenity resources such as footpaths and cycle routes.
The Maen Hir plans involve three separate sites - land between Rhosgoch and Amlwch (North), a parcel between Llannerch-y-medd and Capel Coch (South), and a third site enveloping part of Llyn Alaw reservoir (Central). Most of it is farmland, apart from a former Shell oil depot near Rhosgoch.
Already a 49.9MW solar farm, over 190 acres, has been built east of
Cemaes Bay. It’s prompted accusations that industrial development is again being dumped on north Anglesey and that the area’s tourism economy will suffer.
“Ynys Mon is advertised as a tourist location,” said a woman on social media. “How many tourists will be attracted to the area when the whole island will be covered in panels in a few years time? A solar farm this size is not the answer!”
The developer expects the land affected to remain available for grazing even after panels are installed, with screening measures added to mitigate visual effects.
But already there are demands for compensation for homeowners affected by visual blight and “glare”. And there are mixed feelings about landowners hosting the sites, even among farmers themselves.
Anglesey was known historically as Mam Cymru (Mother of Wales) because its fertile land fed Wales in times of need. Ynys Môn MP Virginia Crosbie has previously warned the scheme risks sacrificing vast areas of agricultural land and the UK’S food security.
In 2022, she told Parliament that solar panels “do not offer the dependable, large-scale solution we need to the energy crisis”. Since then, the scheme has been enlarged. Some people have accused food producers of sacrificing quality farmland to “make an easy buck” and “get rich without working”.
Others say farmers have been left with little choice.
“There is no money in small to medium-size farming any more despite the non-stop hard work of farmers,” said one resident. “Hopefully that will enable them to continue farming the remainder of their land.”
Critics claim such large-scale schemes will lead to the “ruination of our countryside”. On Anglesey, there are plenty of people who support this view.
One woman is concerned about the impact on nearby Mynydd Mechell and Carreglefn, part of a Special Landscape Area which stretches to Rhosgoch.
“This area is different to any other on Anglesey, characterised by widespread rocky outcrops and a lot of gorse,” she said.
“As the last common land enclosed on Anglesey, the area is also still full of wildlife and one of the few remaining places where the cuckoo can be heard.”
As the proposed solar farm is so large, it is considered a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). This means that UK government ministers will make the final decision based on the recommendation of the Planning Inspectorate. Anglesey Council and the Welsh Government can express views but will not have the final say.
As the Conservative-led UK government wants Britain to be generating 70GW of solar power by 2035 - five times current amounts - the public perception is that such schemes will be pushed through regardless. Labour also supports ambitious green energy targets.
Britain’s next mega solar farm, the
373MW Project Fortress in Kent, is under construction despite local opposition though an associated battery park was recently knocked back amid “explosion” concerns.
Often it seems that campaigners can merely hope to delay or amend such projects.
The 500MW Sunnica Farm in Suffolk applied for planning consent in 2021 but is still in stasis after a petition hit more than 8,000 signatures.
To some extent, this is what is happening at Maen Hir.
Originally conceived as Mon Solar in 2021, online engagement resulted in the proposals being “refined and developed” before being relaunched.
A Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) was added, while enhancements included a 5MW community solar scheme. Lightsource bp is also pledging infrastructure investment to “help enable an Energy Hub to provide local employment”.
The developer added: “We have taken on board comments from the initial engagement, with the removal of some previously proposed land, alongside identifying additional potentially suitable areas for solar through engagement with landowners and initial environmental surveys.”
Late last year a scoping report was submitted to the UK Government’s planning inspectorate. This is the prelude to work on an Environmental Impact Assessment.
The plan was to launch a Statutory Consultation, with public meetings, in Spring 2024, and report feedback and EIA findings to the planning inspectorate by winter 2024.
If green-lighted, the earliest predicted start date for construction was 2027. However public consultation is now not due until “later this year” and schemes of this size have a habit of taking much longer than expected to reach development.
Among residents there’s some surprise that Anglesey - despite being promoted as “Energy Island” - should be attractive to solar developers. But a Holyhead resident with solar panels said Ynys Mon “does pretty well for sun” - his own panels get 10% more than originally predicted.
Writing online, Anglesey’s Green Party candidate said first-choice solar locations should be rooftops, brownfield sites and poor quality farmland. Martin Schwaller said community-owned renewables and energy efficiency schemes should be promoted too.
But he added: “In terms of how solar looks, my own opinion is that they look quite good, low, fairly concealed and no worse than acres of polytunnels. We have to produce it (energy) somewhere and wherever that is will be fraught with problems... you can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs.”