CPRE Buckinghamshire
May 2014
CPRE Buckinghamshire Energy Policy: Solar Energy –
Solar Photovoltaic Panel Installations & Solar Farms/Solar Parks
Aim
 To encourage the use of appropriately and sensitively sized and located solar photovoltaic energy
installations in Buckinghamshire whilst ensuring that the beauty and enjoyment of our local countryside is
not damaged by badly conceived development.
Key Policy Points
 Encourages the installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic panels on residential, commercial and farm
buildings but not on listed buildings.
 Supports installing small groups of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic panels, except where the
installation risks causing environmental damage.
 High quality agricultural land (classification 1, 2 or 3a) in Buckinghamshire should not be taken up by solar
energy installations.
 Solar farms must be located sensitively so as to avoid causing major environmental damage, such as
serious impacts on the local landscape, heritage or local amenity.
 Strongly opposes the development of solar farms in the Green Belt and the Chilterns Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty or other designated protection or conservation areas in Buckinghamshire.
 Encourages solar farm developers to maximise the opportunities for biodiversity enhancement measures.
 Encourages that solar farm developments involve and benefit the local community in Buckinghamshire.
 Seeks to ensure issues are addressed where the new solar farm proposed location risks causing significant
environmental damage or the planned measures to minimise and mitigate its environmental impacts are
potentially ineffectual or inadequate, or where local views have not been properly taken into account.
Introduction
CPRE Buckinghamshire’s aim is to protect the beautiful, thriving countryside in Buckinghamshire for everyone
to value and enjoy, particularly in view of the pressures and demand for building and infrastructure
development in the county. The development of renewable energy technology installations, including solar
farms and wind farms, are amongst these development pressures in Buckinghamshire.
CPRE Buckinghamshire is encouraged by the UK’s energy strategy; significantly expanding the development of
solar powered energy, as part of a mix of energy sources, thereby supporting the UK’s commitments to
reducing carbon dioxide emissions and helping to tackle climate change, as well as long term energy security.
The key advantages are that solar energy harvested by solar photovoltaic panels - which convert light from the
sun directly into electricity - is clean, free from carbon dioxide emissions and noise pollution, and is
sustainable. Solar photovoltaic installations can be considered in three typical sizes and arrangements:
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Solar photovoltaic panels mounted onto roofs of buildings;
Small groups of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic panels; and
Large ground-mounted groups of solar photovoltaic panels known as solar farms
or solar parks.
Whilst small installations are virtually free from environmental concern, there is the potential for significant
damage to the local environment from large solar photovoltaic powered energy installations including visual
intrusion, adverse changes to landscape and heritage characteristics, and geological, archaeological and
habitat damage. This policy aims to encourage the use of appropriately and sensitively sized and located solar
powered energy technology installations in Buckinghamshire whilst ensuring that the beauty and enjoyment of
our local countryside is not damaged by badly conceived development. This policy specifically covers
installations of solar photovoltaic panels including solar farms rather than other solar energy technologies such
as solar water heating panels.
Roof-mounted and small ground-mounted solar powered photovoltaic installations
CPRE Buckinghamshire wishes to encourage the installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic panels on residential,
commercial and farm buildings where planning permission is not normally required, but not on listed buildings.
CPRE Buckinghamshire also supports installing small groups of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic panels,
except where the installation risks causing environmental damage, for example, damage to protected or
CPRE Buckinghamshire Energy Policy: Solar Energy
Solar Photovoltaic Panel Installations & Solar Farms – May 2014.
important wildlife or habitats such as destroying rare wild flowers, or occupying high quality agricultural
farming land. CPRE Buckinghamshire’s view is that high quality agricultural land (classification 1, 2 or 3a) in
Buckinghamshire should not be taken up by covering this invaluable land resource with solar energy
installations, particularly in view of the UK’s high level of dependence on food imports and increasing
pressures on food supply demand from future population growth. CPRE Buckinghamshire notes that large
solar photovoltaic panel installations (see solar farms below) sited on lower graded agricultural land
(classification 3b, 4 or 5) can potentially provide the opportunity for combining energy provision, agricultural
use and environmental benefits, supporting farm diversification and generating income, and helping sustain
farm businesses in Buckinghamshire, for example, through livestock grazing between the rows of photovoltaic
panels, or alternatives such as bee-keeping.
Solar Farms
Solar farms can potentially cause considerable environmental damage, primarily due to their large size, for
example: major changes to landscape and heritage characteristics, cause visual intrusion, damage to wildlife
and habitats, soil structures, and local geological substrata, geological and archaeological sites, and even
damage archaeological features which are not visible above the ground. Solar farms are big - for example, the
solar farm at Turweston airfield in Buckinghamshire occupies around eighty acres of land (16.7 MW), whilst
one of the largest solar farms in the UK, which is in Oxfordshire, is around two and half times larger. Solar
farm plans which propose for more than one solar photovoltaic development, or where there is an existing
photovoltaic development, also have the potential for causing greater environmental damage, in particular,
due to cumulative, increasing landscape and visual impacts which result as the number of solar photovoltaic
arrays (rows of solar photovoltaic panels) increases as reflected in the Planning practice guidance for
renewable and low carbon energy. Consequently, solar farms must be located sensitively so as to avoid
causing major environmental damage. Given the potential for environmental damage, CPRE Buckinghamshire
is clear that solar farms should be installed foremost on brownfield sites. This reflects the approach within the
National Planning Policy Framework, whilst recognising that the environmental impact and economics of
power transmission infrastructure may render this option impractical in some locations.
CPRE Buckinghamshire is strongly opposed to the development of solar farms in the Green Belt and the
Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, given that the key purpose for the Green Belt is to stop urban
sprawl and restrict development around towns and cities and for designated Areas of Outstanding Natural
Beauty is conserving and enhancing natural beauty. Solar farms would greatly damage the distinctive visual,
tranquil and beauty characteristics of the landscape for which the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Beauty is
recognised. Solar farms, due to their size, would significantly damage the distinctive landscape character as
reflected in Buckinghamshire County Council’s Landscape Character Assessment, which includes the prominent
chalk escarpment and exhilarating views to the north provided by the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty. The importance of protecting Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty from major solar energy
developments is confirmed within the UK government’s National Planning Policy Framework and Planning
practice guidance for renewable and low carbon energy. CPRE Buckinghamshire notes that a solar farm is
usually afforded planning permission for 25 years which, paradoxically, may be presented as a ‘temporary
development’ and which may be extended at the end of this period. Should a proposed development of a
solar farm in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Beauty receive local authority planning permission, CPRE
Buckinghamshire’s view is that interested parties should seriously consider appealing the decision.
Solar farms should not be located in ecological, geological, geomorphological, historical or archaeological
important or sensitive sites including designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), Special Protection
Areas and Special Areas of Conservation. Solar farms can impact detrimentally on wildlife, for example,
covering areas of land used by bats for foraging and disturbing small animals through causing habitat changes.
Extensive groups of solar photovoltaic panels can potentially cause glint and glare, and imitate water surfaces
interfering with insect breeding. However, solar farms may well provide opportunities for increasing local
biodiversity through, for example, planting hedgerows or grasses around the solar panels and CPRE
Buckinghamshire wishes to encourage solar farm developers to maximise the opportunities for biodiversity
enhancement measures within their plans as encouraged in the government’s Planning practice guidance for
renewable and low carbon energy.
Proposals for a new solar farm need to include effective measures to minimise and mitigate the development’s
potential environmental impacts such as screening the solar photovoltaic panels from view by naturally
occurring tree lines, and planting hedgerows, and utilising non-reflective coated solar photovoltaic panels to
minimise glint and glare; sympathetic security fencing (with gaps for small animal access) and lighting; and the
CPRE Buckinghamshire Energy Policy: Solar Energy
Solar Photovoltaic Panel Installations & Solar Farms – May 2014.
least obtrusive grid connections, transformer stations, and inverter cabinets. CPRE Buckinghamshire is
opposed to allowing a new solar farm to be installed where the proposed location risks causing significant
environmental damage, or the planned measures to minimise and mitigate its environmental impacts are
potentially ineffectual or inadequate, or where local views have not been seriously taken account of as
required under the government’s National Planning Policy Framework and Planning practice guidance for
renewable and low carbon energy. In addition, CPRE Buckinghamshire wishes to encourage that solar farm
developments involve and benefit the local community in Buckinghamshire and community benefit schemes
as explored in BRE/NSC’s Planning guidance for the development of large scale ground mounted solar PV
systems.
Solar farms also incur the usual major environmental impacts arising from such industrial scale construction
including soil excavation, building access roads and trenching power cables, heavy plant and construction
traffic emissions. During construction, there is also the risk of increasing water run-off due to reduced soil
permeability from compacted soil, and damage to vegetation; risk which can be mitigated by ensuring good
practice in maintaining soil integrity, vegetation coverage and site design. It is noted that both underground
and overhead power transmission cables can cause significant visual and biodiversity detriments, and need to
be routed so as to minimise their environmental impact; CPRE Buckinghamshire’s view is that transmission
cables should be placed underground unless trench excavation risks damaging protected sites, wildlife, or
important habitats.
Finally, CPRE Buckinghamshire concurs that at the end of their life, solar farms should be decommissioned and
dismantled in line with best practice to minimise environmental impact, including a waste management plan
which incorporates effective recycling and safe disposal so as to avoid metallic compounds potentially entering
landfill, and the site itself restored to its pre-solar farm condition.
Reference and Further Reading
 Buckinghamshire County Council. Landscape Plan for Buckinghamshire. Landscape Character Assessment.
http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/environment/landscape-assessment/
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6077/2116950.pdf
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BRE/NSC. Planning guidance for the development of large scale ground mounted solar PV
systems. http://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/pdf/other_pdfs/KN5524_Planning_Guidance_reduced.pdf
CPRE. CPPRE’s Policy on Energy. www.cpre.org.uk
 CPRE. Going, going, gone? England’s disappearing landscapes. National Parks, AONBS and locally valued
http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/countryside/landscapes/item/download/3303
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CPRE Norfolk. Policy Statement: Solar Farms. http://www.cprenorfolk.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2012/11/Solar-Farms.pdf
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CPRE Oxfordshire. Solar Energy Policy: Branch Statement. 2013.
http://www.cpreoxon.org.uk/campaigns/energy-and-water/energy/solar-farms/item/download/635
 INRG PV Explained http://www.inrg.eu/pv-solar-explained/
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INRG Solar UK Projects http://www.inrg.eu/projects/
Landscapes – under threat around the country. 2013. development schemes threatening
AONBs in the UK. http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/countryside/landscapes/item/download/3302
 Natural England Technical Information Note TIN101 Solar parks: maximising environmental benefits. Natural England.
2011. http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/102004
 Solar photovoltaic electricity in agriculture – on your roofs or in your fields? NFU Briefing. 2010. http://www.solartrade.org.uk/media/Solar_briefing_NFU.pdf
 Turney, D. & Fthenakis, V. Environmental impacts from the installation and operation of large-scale solarpower plants.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 15, 3261– 3270. 2011.
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UK Department for Communities & Local Government. National Planning Policy Framework.
2012. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6077/2116950.pdf
 UK Department for Communities & Local Government. Planning practice guidance for renewable and low carbon energy.
2013.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225689/Planning_Practice_Guidance_f
or_Renewable_and_Low_Carbon_Energy.pdf
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UK Department of Energy & Climate Change. The Carbon Plan: Delivery our low carbon
future. 2011. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/47613/3702-the-carbonplan-delivering-our-low-carbon-future.pdf
CPRE Buckinghamshire Energy Policy: Solar Energy
Solar Photovoltaic Panel Installations & Solar Farms – May 2014.
 UK Department of Energy & Climate Change. UK PV Strategy Part 1: Roadmap to a Brighter Future. 2013.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/249277/UK_Solar_PV_Strategy_Part_1
_Roadmap_to_a_Brighter_Future_08.10.pdf
CPRE Buckinghamshire Energy Policy: Solar Energy
Solar Photovoltaic Panel Installations & Solar Farms – May 2014.