Green light for solar farms means Swindon leads the way in Climate Change challenge

The two farms, at Roves Farm in Sevenhampton, and in South Marston, both measure 32 acres in size and will produce enough electricity for 4,000 dwellings.

Roves Farm owner Rupert Burr said he was delighted to have secured planning permission for the project, which will see a five megawatt capacity solar farm built consisting of 17,000 solar panels.

He said: “We were reasonably optimistic about this outcome but we are very pleased because we have been working towards it for a long time.

“Everybody I have spoken to has been very supportive of the plans, in fact I haven’t met anybody who has said they disagree with it and I presume this was shown in the letters of support that were sent to the planning committee.”

The scheme, which will stretch across about 30 acres of land in two fields immediately to the west of the Roves Farm buildings, is the largest eligible for support under the new government incentive scheme known as the “Feed-In Tariff” announced last year.

Rupert, who has run Roves Farm since 1992, said the first phase of the project must be completed by August 1.

“Obviously there are some formalities to sort out before then,” he said.

“But it is early days and the first phase has to be completed by August 1 to be eligible for the government scheme.

“The next stage is to try to market the electricity and find companies who are interested in it, I hope there will be an interest out there so we can start pushing it a little bit more.”

George Paton who acts for the landowners said: “This is a fantastic step for Swindon in meeting the challenges set by Climate Change.

“This scheme will mean Swindon leads the way with one of the largest solar fields of any town in the UK.

The developers AEE Renewables plan to start work on the site in the next four weeks.

Power generated will be fed into the national grid.

For more information call Roves Farm Visitor Centre during normal working hours on 01793 763939.