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Local support for area’s first solar farm

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By Fiona Reid
Annan and Eskdale
Local support for area’s first solar farm

ANNANDALE’S first solar farm is set to get the go ahead next week.

The 37.9MW development at Jockstown, near Creca, has got the backing of residents locally and planning officials.

It will comprise 75,796 photo voltaic panels, set on 2707 tables in 14 different fields.

They will be a metre off the ground and have a geometric layout, orientated south.

There will also be 12 battery storage containers on site and a control room and substation, with generated power taken to the nearby Chapelcross substation by underground cables.

Access will be off the B722 and a new access road will be constructed.

The construction period will be about 48 weeks and will involve 60 workers on site at the peak.

In addition, the applicants say they anticipate 141 deliveries by HGV, averaging ten a day.

The solar farm would last for 40 years and would then be decommissioned as the panels would only be working at 80 per cent of their original capacity. The area would then revert back to agricultural use.

Public consultations have been carried out and the council received five representations in support of the scheme.

The supporters welcomed the generation of clean electricity, the planned improvements to the ecological value of the site and the boost to the local economy through job creation.

Recommending it for approval, case officer Andrew Robinson said in his report: “It is considered that there is scope for the location to accommodate a large scale solar farm proposal where significant effects would, on the whole, be largely limited and can be mitigated through a robust landscaping scheme.

“Taking all of the relevant planning considerations into account, it is considered that the proposal would result in a large renewable energy generating station that has been carefully designed to ensure that effects on the environmental considerations would be kept to a minimum, except for some significant landscape and visual effects from a few receptors where such effects can be further reduced through incorporating a landscaping scheme as compensatory mitigation.

“The proposal would make a useful contribution to renewable energy and climate change targets and would give rise to socioeconomic benefits in the form of short-term construction jobs.”

The application will go before the planning committee on Thursday for their decision.

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