Welcome
Thank you very much for visiting our website, which is here to provide information and ways to feedback on our plans for a new solar farm on land to the south of Stowey Road, south of Bishop Sutton and north of Hinton Blewett. The website has now been updated with information from the exhibition held on 22nd July 2024.
We are Regener8, a leading renewable energy developer with a focus on not just farming the sun’s energy but also supporting farmers, improving ecology and biodiversity, ensuring the local community benefit and delivering quality and considerate schemes.
In March 2019, Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Council declared a climate emergency which included a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030. This solar project will offer a significant contribution towards this target. As part of BANES’s climate emergency strategy, they commissioned a Renewable Energy Resource Assessment report in February 2022. Within this report, the land to the south of Stowey Road was highlighted as a preferred area for solar development as the site sits on ‘unconstrained land’ with low agricultural land grade.
Reducing our country’s dependency on fossil fuels and increasing our energy security is a national priority. This solar farm would support the UK's commitment to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Solar is playing a significant role in this, but it must be done right and with meaningful involvement of the local community.
We have been carefully developing the proposals over the last two years, including working with neighbours and the landowners.
The site is well screened, secluded and on low quality, difficult to farm, agricultural land.
Our proposed 49.9MW development would generate clean energy, to be supplied into the National Grid to meet local and national demand. It would also considerably improve local biodiversity, while continuing to contribute towards food production with sheep grazing around the solar panels.
The period of public consultation on our proposals has now closed. We would like to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions – we are now reviewing all the feedback we have received, as we finalise our proposals and prepare our planning application for submission to BANES Council.
View a copy of the information that was on display at the exhibition & provide your feedback online:
Some of the key benefits include:
The displacement of over 450,000 tonnes of CO2 from equivalent fossil fuel energy, which equates to taking c.5,500 cars off Somerset’s roads per year.
Significant biodiversity net gain, providing ecological benefit through: re-establishing hedgerow connections, provision of flora margins along field boundaries, enhanced landscape and wildlife corridor running through the scheme, and linking adjacent SSSI’s through creation of wildflower grassland.
Sheep would continue to graze here.
A community benefit fund will be provided to local causes: please provide suggestions on where these funds can be directed.
Approximately £100k of business rates per annum