Plans for huge solar farm in the Gwent Levels progressing

Plans for a huge solar farm in the Gwent Levels, with the capacity to provide enough green energy to power more than 100,000 homes, are progressing. The proposed renewables scheme, south of the Llanwern steelworks site and near the village of Redwick, is from Future Energy Llanwern Ltd.

The project has the financial backing of one of the world’s largest solar investors NextEnergy Capital – which manages $3.9bn worth of solar assets globally having acquired or built more than 400 projects to date. A statutory consultation with the local community is scheduled late this year.

It is envisaged that the scheme could have capacity to generate up to 400MW of green solar energy, which would be enough to power 108,000 homes.

The project, which would straddle the local authority boundaries of Monmouthshire and Newport, would be connected to the National Grid via a substation at Whitson.

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Future Energy Llanwern said more details, including the cost of the project, size and its electricity generation and battery storage elements, will be provided in the coming months.

Due to the proposed scale of the solar farm it would be determined by the UK Government as a nationally significant infrastructure project and not the Welsh Government – although it will have input in any process – as a development of national significant.

Over its operational life time of 40 years, Future Energy Llanwern said that £10m (£250,000 per annum) from the sale of electricity generated would fund local projects, as well as providing free electric vehicle charging for local residents.

It would be wholly-funded and owned by NextEnergy. Future Energy Llanwern said the progress of the project is not contingent upon the outcome of any forthcoming contract for difference (guarantee energy price from the UK Government) arrangements.

However, it said decisions on funding mechanisms for the scheme would be taken closer to the time of construction.

It added: “With the site being located in the Gwent Levels the developer is mindful of the environmental sensitivities of the site and is experienced in delivering solar energy projects within the area.”

On the number of solar panels it said: “A precise panel specification has not yet been selected as panel technology is rapidly improving meaning that this decision is deferred to the construction stage.

“Therefore, we cannot quantify the precise number of panels at this stage.”

Monmouthshire County Council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for planning and economic development, Paul Griffiths, said: “Monmouthshire County Council will respond in full to any planning application that is made. The council has the objective of placing Monmouthshire at the forefront of the green industrial revolution.

“The council will consider in equal measure the impact that this development would have on the supply of renewable energy and the impact on the very distinctive local ecology.”

NextEnergy provided the finance for a now operational solar farm at Llanwern – a scheme delivered by a company with the same directors as Future Energy Llanwern in Elizabeth and Peter Vyvyan-Robinson.

The directors, with planned backing from NextEnergy, are also seeking to revive another solar farm project at the Gwent Levels, via Wentlooge Farmers’ Solar Scheme Ltd, which was rejected by the Welsh Government in 2021.

The proposed 250,000-solar panel scheme on a 129-hectare site was rejected despite a consent recommendation in a report from an independent planning inspector which was undertaken after the project had been called by the Welsh Government.

Then Welsh Government Minister for Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths, said the project would have had an “unacceptable impact” on a landscape of outstanding historic interest.

A spokesman for Future Energy Llanwern said: “Welsh ministers have conceded a legal challenge thus accepting that they acted unlawfully through their previous refusal of the application, and therefore the previous decision was quashed. The Wentlooge application is now planned for redetermination.”