Ben Holgate looks at the controversy over covering our green fields with shiny panels

Second-generation farmer Charles Landless is bemused at the criticism of his plan to build a £5m solar farm on his land given that farmers are under financial pressure and the world needs clean energy.

Mr Landless, 58, said: “We got a lot of negativity from the planning officers but the planning committee was hugely supportive.

“There’s negativity from local people about what it looks like. I am surprised because there is a lot of publicity about meeting our renewable energy targets.”

The Conservative Government aims for the UK to generate 15 per cent of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020.

Mr Landless’ plan for 20,000 solar panels on his 360-acre Hill Farm, at Duns Tew, is one of three solar farm applications so far in 2015 in Oxfordshire.

Across the UK, 296 solar farm applications have been lodged this year as the Government reviews its renewable energy subsidies, according to Barbour ABI, which analyses the construction industry.

Solar farms generate as much dissent in local communities as they do electricity.

Cherwell District Council’s planning officers initially recommended that Mr Landless’ solar farm be rejected because of its visual impact on the countryside.

But on October 1, the council’s planning committee approved the project, to be built on a 25-acre site.

Councillor Michael Gibbard said the proposal would minimise the impact to the environment through the planting of wildflower buffers, grassland and trees, and affect “very few homes in the immediate locality”.

Mr Landless said he approached his solar farm’s developer, Earthworm Energy, in 2014 because he wanted to diversify his income and protect the farm’s viability for his daughters aged 24 and 26.

“There’s a lack of understanding about farming,” he said. “By enabling farms to do that, and earn quite a lot more money, it helps to keep the rest of the farm where profitability is not so good.”

He said the solar farm, for which he does not have to outlay any capital, would improve the profitability of its acreage by at least 10 times, compared to arable farming. The solar farm could also be dismantled after its 25-year life.

Mr Landless, who grows crops and runs beef cattle and beef breeding cows, also intends to graze sheep amid the solar panels.

“It’s exciting to be able to produce clean energy from your fields,” he said.

The solar farm will produce five megawatts (MW) of electricity a year, enough to power 1,515 homes, which will go into the national grid.

Tony Wehby, of Earthworm Energy, said not all sites were appropriate for solar farms. “You have to be close to the grid and close to a cabling infrastructure.”

Mr Wehby said the Hill Farm project would be eligible for a subsidy under the Renewable Obligation Certificates scheme.

Michael Dall, lead economist for Barbour ABI, said the announcement in September that the Government was reviewing its renewable energy subsidies was “a major factor in the increase in the number of solar and wind farm applications” across the UK.

The renewable energy industry expects the subsidies to be wound down next year. The Government is consulting with industry and will make a decision on subsidies in November.

The uncertainty caused a spike in solar farm applications in July (a record 83) and August this year, according to Barbour ABI.

However, Barbour ABI figures show that the three solar farm applications in Oxfordshire to date this year compare with a high of 10 for the county in 2014, seven in 2013 and two in 2012.

Another local application is for Wadley Hill Farm, in Elsfield, near Oxford, which is also for a £5m, 5MW project.

Michael Tyce, of Oxfordshire Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “We oppose the use of land for solar farms because we think the land is best used for agriculture.”

He said the UK produced only 60 per cent of the food it consumed. “Britain has a much greater shortage of food than it does solar energy.”

However, Richard Jenkins, of Lightsource Renewable Energy, the applicant for Wadley Hill, said landowner, Robert Brooks, decided it would benefit his farm to diversify as he had been growing wheat in that field at a loss.

Mr Jenkins said Mr Brooks planned to graze sheep amid the solar farm so Wadley Hill Farm would “remain economically viable”.

Mr Jenkins said the project would involve 19,600 solar panels on a fifth of the 29-acre site.

The plan, lodged on July 1, is yet to be approved by South Oxfordshire Council. Lightsource expects a decision by the end of October.