Some residents in the Jersey parish of St Mary have strongly objected to proposals for a major new solar farm across 22 acres of local agricultural land.
Eight potato fields would be fitted with around 9,000 ground-mounted panels should planning permission be given, enough to power more than 800 homes.
The island currently relies on energy imported from neighbouring France but Jersey Electricity hopes that by bringing in more of it themselves from renewable sources, energy prices will be lower in the long term and be good for the planet.
However, parishioners have sent a letter detailing their concerns over this treatment of green space.
Resident William Layzell says: “These fields are within the top 50% of prime agricultural land and should be avoided for use.
“That loss cannot be acceptable in an ideal where the Jersey Royal is known and precious.
“It is the fourth application Jersey Electricity has submitted for a solar farm on the island … this one will be twice the size of St Clements, we say it is too big and will damage the countryside.
“There is no getting away from the fact that it impacts us personally but it impacts everybody. It is everybody’s backyard.”
Resident Brian Mansfield adds: “Tourists and locals use the road and benefit from the beauty of this site which they are going to lose.”
Some parishioners are in favour of the plans though with one commenting online: “I support this application.
“St Mary has 759 dwellings. If granted planning permission this project will generate enough electricity to power 777 fully electric homes – 102% of the homes in St Mary.”
Chris Ambler, Chief Executive Officer of Jersey Electricity, explains: “We welcome a debate on this. It is actually a small-scale development, by international standards it is about a tenth of the size that you would typically get in the UK but nevertheless, we want to do it in a way that is sensitive to the local community.
“These are low-level static, silent solar panels, they won’t move or make a noise and they are going to generate a significant amount of local energy.
“Our hope and ambition is that it will allow us to keep prices lower in Jersey and more stable and I think it is important to recognise that we are doing this on low-value land, we know it is low value because we have measured that.
“The last three crops have failed in the last three years, notwithstanding that, we want to keep it in agricultural use.
“We have an orchard that would be developed right around the corridor that will be about 800 trees.”
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