PERMISSION has been granted for a solar farm which will help increase the amount of renewable energy Swindon uses as a town.

On Tuesday night, the owners of Roves Farm were told they could go ahead with construction of a solar at its premises in Sevenhampton.

When completed, the farm will provide 10MW of power which will be put into the local grid. The farm is one of a several set to be built in the region.

The project has been several years in the making but was held up for a variety of reasons. It is hoped now that the panels will be in place and operational over the next few months.

Permission was first granted in 2011 for a 5MW farm but due to improvements in technology, panels can now produce twice the power in around the same amount of space.

Rupert Burr, the owner of Roves Farm, said: “We are delighted it got through. We started this about four years ago but various delays meant it didn’t go ahead.

“Soon after we got permission the government changed the tariffs. In that time, solar technology has advanced greatly so we can now produce 10MW.

“We hope now to have everything in place by Christmas.”

The proposal was called before the planning committee as some believed the panels may have a detrimental visual impact on the surrounding area, something Rupert rejects.

He said: “I don’t think it will have any impact as it will not really be visible unless you are effectively standing in the fields.

“They are surrounded by hedges. Even from the house you can only see them from one window.

“The fields will still be used for farming, with sheep or poultry grazing underneath the panels. In one of the fields there are currently flowers which will remain, encouraging birds, bees and insects.”

There is a major power cable which will run under the fields and any power generated will be fed into that.

Rupert is a strong advocate of renewable energy and believes more could be done in the Swindon area.

He said: “My introduction first started with biomass a number of years ago. Solar power is very good but we should also look at other possibilities. The problem with solar power is it is intermittent. It does not obviously work at night and isn’t great in winter.

“I believe enough renewable energy could be produced here to provide for much of the Eastern Development.”