Community energy company asks for support for new Lewes solar farm

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TBM Team

Plans for a brand new solar farm have been submitted for consent to Lewes District Council.

The planning application for Ouse Valley Solar Farm near Ringmer is likely to be influenced strongly by public support. As such, Ovesco, the local community energy company behind the project, are asking those in favour of it to speak up.

Once up and running, the Norlington Farm site should provide 17 megawatts of power, that's enough energy to run 4,800 homes.

Ovesco claim that there would be many benefits of Ouse Valley Solar Farm, including:

The generation up to 17MW of clean and entirely renewable electricity sent to the National Grid
Helping Lewes District Council reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in line with local, national and international targets (and the declared Climate Emergency targets)
Generating the equivalent electrical needs of approximately 4,800 family homes (which equates to a CO2 displacement of nearly 7,000 tonnes per annum)
A hefty biodiversity net gain, with a 234% net gain in habitat areas and 104% net gain in hedgerow areas
As a community energy project, locals would have the ability to personally invest in Ouse Valley Solar Farm and receive an annual return on their investment

Local residents can register their support for the planning application of the solar farm by:

Visiting the online the planning portal here
Entering the planning reference LW/22/0254 when prompted to do so
Clicking 'Comments' and then 'Make a comment'
Commenting, ideally by Thursday the 19th of May (the consultation expiry date)

Organisers ask that you consider the benefits to the project as outlined above in any comments you leave. Or, of course, feel free to leave any thoughts or opinions you have on the idea.

If you have any queries about the project, you can contact Ovesco by email on: ousevalleysolar@ovesco.co.uk

TBM Team