A SOLAR panel array could be coming to a field near you.
So far, an array has been installed in St Clement (7,532 panels) and is soon to be in operation. Another one is in Rue d’Olive, St Mary where planning permission has been granted but the panels have yet to be installed.
Similarly, planning permission has been granted at Sorel, with no panels installed as yet. This is in the highly-protected Protected Coastal Area, next to the Coastal National Park, alongside the north coast path.
The development had been strongly opposed by the National Trust for Jersey, was recommended for refusal by the Planning Department but approved when it came before the Planning Committee.
An installation at Les Champs Verts in St Mary, comprising eight fields covering 50 vergées will comprise 9,128 panels.
It is currently under consideration by the Planning Department and is strongly opposed by local residents, despite assurances from the JEC’s chief executive Chris Ambler, that the area under panels would only be 20% greater than the existing development in St Clement.
The balance of the area would be taken up by an orchard around the perimeter and other agricultural uses that would effectively screen the panels from view.
The Jersey Farmers Union has advised the government to “proceed with appropriate caution”.
A development at Rue Fondan in St Peter, at the west and south end of the airport runway in fields overlooking St Ouen’s Bay and in the Protected Coastal Area, is out for public consultation. A further location will be near Queen’s Valley, where it is hoped that experimental new crops will be grown underneath the panels.
At a public meeting organised recently by the objectors to Les Champs Verts development, Mr Ambler admitted that finding suitable sites had been difficult. He revealed that there would likely be an additional two sites, but their locations were not given. When pressed, he admitted that both of them would probably be as big as Les Champs Verts.
Writing in response to a consultation request from Planning regarding the application for Les Champs Verts, the president of the Jersey Farmers Union Douglas Richardson said: “The JFU naturally has concerns with the loss of prime, cultivatable agricultural land for the next 40 years or more. Land that we would consider is within the top 50% of available cultivable land in the Island and therefore, could be potentially important for the farming futures of the next generation. The loss of this agricultural land means that there will be less area available for crop rotation, which has proven agricultural gains.
“Field arrays are being favoured ahead of commercial rooftop installations due to a greater financial gain for the Jersey Electricity Company.
“The JFU’s position, given all the above, is that the true visual and environmental impact of these solar farms on our small island is as yet unknown; perhaps now is the moment to refrain from issuing further permits or decisions until the impacts and performance of the earlier sites are assessed, once developed.”
Mr Ambler said in a JEP interview that the JEC had so far installed seven big roof-based developments in Jersey amounting to 1.1 megawatts of generating capacity.
The JEC had committed to a domestic roof solar proposition, and it was hoped that by 2030 the equivalent of 5,000 homes would be powered by solar energy.
“We are not about ground-based solar in opposition to roof-based solar. We are about ground- and roof-based solar.”
– Read the interviews with a neighbouring resident of Les Champs Verts in St Mary, William Layzell, and with the chief executive of Jersey Electricity Chris Ambler on pages 24 and 25 of today’s JEP.
