Please sign our petition in support of the proposed solar project at Cornbury Park.
The planning application for a 5MW solar farm was recommended for refusal at the Uplands Planning Committee earlier this month on the grounds that “the design, form and appearance of the proposed PV panels will be very urban in character.”
Apart from being arguable, this judgment takes no account of the bigger picture of the climate change implications of the alternatives – which would liekly have more impact.
To help you decide whether you agree the application should be allowed, you can see the full details of the Alectron planning application to West Oxfordshire District Council with supporting documents on the WODC site.
We the undersigned are keen to see the construction of the Cornbury Solar Farm and welcome the opportunity the community has to become part-owners of this scheme, allowing us to make a visible contribution locally to reducing climate change emissions.
Tim Watt,
Also signed at the Charlbury Farmers' Market.
russell robson,
This is good for Charlbury, Cornbury and the environment
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Valou Pakenham-Walsh,
Also signed at the Charlbury Farmers' Market.
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This is one of the rare sites in the countryside on private land where public access is restricted (due to the gutlessness of the Blair government!) and the effects of the site will be invisible unless you are literally on top of it. We need to address renewable energy needs ASAP and this is as good a site with minimal environmental or human perspective impacts as one could find in the country!
Steve Vaux,
With the recent events in Japan, initiatives like this are essential
Christine Elliott,
Richard Burton,
I think it makes a lot of sense having solar panels concentrated in one space - almost the same size as the town, perhaps reducing the need to have them on individual roofs.
kath cochrane,
Sam Simson,
The UK is reaching an energy crisis point. Insatiable demand, inadequate and expensive supply mean 2020 is a key year.
Factor in the 2020 need to meet Kyoto targets of 20% renewable energy generation and you realise something monumental must be done NOW.
The proposed slashing of support by the Government under the Feed-In Tariff, which is not yet one year old, will pull the rug from under a fledgling industry that has created more than 130,000 jobs in Germany.
The Feed-In Tariff (FIT) scheme has already been run successfully in over 50 other countries around the world, and is designed to reward individuals and organisations generating energy from renewable sources including solar, small-scale wind, micro-hydro and biomass.
The Coalition Government claims that large scale solar projects were not envisaged under the FIT regulations.
In their announcement, the Government have indicated that they intend to slash the price paid for large solar from 30p per unit of electricity to just 8p. A suggestion that has received criticism by the solar industry.
Dale Vince OBE, founder of Ecotricity, said: “Britain stood on the brink of a solar power revolution when the last government introduced FITs, with cross-party support. This new Government have acted with incredible haste to effectively shut down the solar industry.
“It’s hard to make sense of that when Britain urgently needs to be building its own sources of clean energy and when solar, which has been so successful elsewhere in Europe, could play such a vital role.
“There’s no economic sense either in supporting household solar at the expense of big solar, as the Government are. Household solar costs us all 50 per cent more than big solar does for each unit of electricity made and each tonne of carbon saved – it’s economic madness to choose such inefficiency in these times of severe austerity.
“The total cost of the FIT scheme is projected to be just £5 a year per household by 2014 – that’s all this Government will commit to renewables. Meanwhile they prepare to announce the award of three times that sum (£1 Billion in total) to one energy company in the UK, to build a clean coal project. This shows where the Governments priorities truly lie.
“And for the sake of £5 a year on a bill, this isn’t a question of ‘can we afford to do it?’, but can we afford not to? Every time the oil price doubles, like it has in the past two years, it adds 30 per cent to our energy bills. By comparison the FIT is set to add one per cent. It’s hardly going to protect us from the oil price shocks that are coming.”
Denmark went from a 99% energy importer in the 1970’s to a net exporter 30 years later.
This was achieved by unwavering support for renewable technology and a tariff.
The UK is very different from Denmark. Nevertheless, there is much to be learnt from their approach.
What will our children think of this wasted opportunity?
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A great way for the community to start building a social enterprise.
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Any group or organisating trying to create alternative energy opportunities should be given the go ahead! We need this!
DAVID OUVRY,
Delighted to support a project of this kind
Frances Mortimer,
