We have some exciting news. We are partnering with Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) to propose a new solar farm near their airbase in South Gloucestershire. The project follows the successful installation of our 240 kilowatt peak rooftop array at the airbase in 2024 – helping the charity provide air ambulance and critical care services across Bristol, South Gloucestershire and beyond. It’s great to know that Community Energy is helping save lives in the Southwest and through this new proposed project we can do so much more.
In late January, we submitted a planning application, which is now available to view on South Gloucestershire Council’s website here. We expect the decision to be made soon. We expect the solar farm will generate around 5.5 million kWh of renewable electricity every year – enough to power over 1,500 homes.
Our proposal spotlights the benefits to biodiversity, and includes planting hedgerows, native fruit trees and managing grassland for nature. You can read more about it here.
We estimate that the solar farm will generate around £560k in community benefit payments over the next 40 years, half of which will support GWAAC’s critical care services, with the remainder for wider community benefit grants.
These are the highlights on how we see the impact of the solar farm:
Nature conservation
We’re taking nature conservation seriously. The proposal goes well beyond the minimum requirement, with over 40% biodiversity net gain on hedgerows, plus more than 8 acres devoted to new or enhanced grassland and traditional orchards.
Landscape
The impacts on the landscape are limited and temporary, as the solar farm would only be there for 40 years. The project has been designed to generate a significant amount of renewable energy from a relatively small area, while also allowing grassland habitats to be retained, and providing large additional areas for biodiversity improvements.
Community benefit
As a community-owned project, this is very different to a commercial proposal. The project is expected to offer significantly higher community benefit funding than similar commercial projects, and fits well with the council’s emerging policies which specifically support community energy projects.
Visibility and noise
The solar farm is very well screened from nearby properties and will only really be visible from the motorway. To further reduce visibility, we’ve kept the number of structures to a minimum and placed them carefully. In terms of noise, solar farms are very quiet.
Traffic
The proposal uses an existing access route so traffic disruption will be minimal.
If you would like to support the planning application with some positive feedback, you can submit a comment directly via the planning portal here. Or if you have any other comments, please do get in touch at projects@bristolenergy.coop
We really appreciate your interest and support in this project. Now is a really exciting time for community-owned energy as we continue on our mission to build a fairer, greener energy system – owned by the people it serves.
