Solar farm plans submitted for Saltlands area of Bridgwater

Somerset County Council announced in February 2021 that it intends to invest at least £3million of taxpayers’ money in building a new solar farm in the Saltlands area of Bridgwater.

The council argued the investment would not only provide green energy for the county, but would generate income to fund front-line services.

Formal plans for the new facility have now been submitted, with the council expected to make a final decision in the spring.

If approved, the solar farm will be built across three fields north of the Saltlands Community Wood, near the town’s household waste recycling centre, the Wessex Water processing facility and the recently-constructed school transport depot.

The site – which is surrounded on three sides by the River Parrett – was used as a landfill for inert waste until it was capped in 1989, and is currently used for grazing livestock.

If approved, the solar farm will be operational for 40 years, with some of the energy being stored on-site in a battery storage facility along the lines of the Taunton facility owned by South Somerset District Council.

A spokesman for Alandem Consulting (representing the county council) said: “This offers a potential virtuous circle development with a direct renewable energy supply to Wessex Water, to enable them to displace imported grid electricity used for their water treatment processes and pumping.

“The council is also looking at supplying renewable energy to the recently developed coach and minibus parking depot, on the former landfill Pulveriser compound site, as part of the future de-carbonization of public transport with the introduction of electric buses and other electric transport vehicles.

“The proposed solar park will avoid penetrating the clay cap and use appropriate foundations depending on the cap thickness.”

While much of the surrounding areas lies in flood zone 3 (meaning it is at high risk of flooding), the landfill areas on which the panels will be erected are raised up, meaning they are at lower risk from the rising river.

The site also lies a short distance upstream from the recently-approved Bridgwater tidal barrier, which is designed to protect around 13,000 homes and 1,500 businesses from being flooded in the coming decades.

The capital spending on the solar farm was approved by the council in its 2021 budget, with the allocated amount expended to be rolled over when the council meets on February 23 to set its final budget before the transition to the new unitary authority.

A decision on the solar farm plans is expected to be made by the council’s regulation committee later in the year.