Solar farm sites are dropped in district

Plans for solar farms at Easthampnett and Hunston have been dropped – but other projects are on the horizon.

Some £2,000 was spent looking at two sites, to house the farms and battery storage, but neither will go ahead.

At a meeting of the county council’s performance and finance committee, members were told the Easthampnett site was too small, while there were grid capacity issues at Hunston.

Michael Jones (Lab, Gossops Green & Southgate) described the losses as ‘a great shame’, adding that the solar farms provided ‘great revenue’ for the council.

But the meeting was told that detailed feasibility work was being carried out at a site in Horsham Road, Crawley, while a closed waste site in Halewick Lane, Sompting, was at the planning/business case stage of development, with a decision expected in June.

Both sites would be for battery storage, with Halewick Lane being the larger.

A spokesman said such live energy projects brought in more than £1m for the council coffers.

Leader Louise Goldsmith said: “It is one of those things that we know it’s a good thing to do, it’s providing energy and giving us a return. As long as the sun keeps shining we know the money will keep coming in, so that’s all right.”

She added a former waste site at Baystone Farm, Horsham, was also being considered.

The spokesman said: “All of our capital projects are subject to detailed feasibility work and must have a robust business case.

“Income generating energy projects are required to set out how they will repay the construction cost and deliver target revenue return.

“Given the scale and complexity of these projects, it is inevitable that some will prove to be less viable than others once initial feasibility work has been completed.”

Explaining the problem at Hunston, he added: “Constraints on the local electricity grid – ie, inability to connect sufficient generation or battery capacity in a certain location due to the need for significant, time-consuming and costly upgrade work – are a common reason why energy projects may not progress beyond the feasibility stage.

“At Easthampnett there was not enough physical space to install a financially viable solar PV system [the cells used convert sunlight into electricity] due to the number of wayleaves, watercourses and services identified beneath the land.”