PLANS have been unveiled to establish a solar farm on a 420,000sq m site of agricultural fields.

Lightrock Power has asked Darlington Borough Council for planning guidance over developing a photovoltaic array on land near Brafferton, east of Aycliffe Village.

The firm said the solar farm would have a maximum export capacity of 31 Megawatts – enough to power about 10,000 average homes.

The proposal, which is yet to be formally lodged with the authority, follows other electricity generating solar schemes being granted in the area, including one in Great Stainton and another near Aycliffe Business Park.

The Solar Trade Association says the UK needs solar power to meet its 15 per cent renewable energy target by the end of this year, part of the EU’s renewable energy target.

A spokesman for the association said: “Solar also creates investment and local green jobs, whilst reducing the reliance on overseas fossil fuel imports.”

The proposal comes just two months after plans for a 49.9MW capacity solar farm across a 230-acre greenfield site near the villages of Bishopton and Redmarshall, between Darlington and Stockton. It also comes after ministers gave approval to Britain’s largest solar farm, capable of generating enough clean electricity to power 91,000 homes with some 880,000 solar panels in Kent, earlier this year.

The renewables industry believes the UK’s solar power capacity could rise to 27GW by 2030 after the UK government dropped a block which prevented solar farms and onshore wind projects from competing in subsidy contract auctions.

While concerns for the impact of solar farms on the surrounding landscape are among the top considerations for planners when considering proposals such as the one near Brafferton, Lightrock Power said the site it had chosen benefited from hedgerows and trees which would screen the site.

A spokesman for the firm said: “The low-lying solar development would sit within the gently rolling landform, broken up by existing lines which comprise a mix of scrub, overgrown hedgerows and pre-existing tree belts.”

In documents submitted to the council the firm said the solar panels would be installed alongside new wildflower meadows as well as potential woodland and hedge planting. It said the landscape has the capacity to accommodate the development due to the gently rolling nature of the landform and existing vegetation, including the existing tree-line shelterbelt, which would provide existing screening.”

The spokesman said: “The site is not ecologically sensitive, and the development has the potential to provide beneficial effects to ecology in the short to medium term. The solar farm would be compatible with sheep grazing during the temporary operational phase, maintaining the land’s agricultural use in part.”

The firm said land use at the site would then be returned to full agricultural use following decommissioning of the development after the 40-year operational period.