Plans have been submitted to Doncaster City Council for a major solar farm just north west of the city centre that will offset 13,200 tonnes of carbon and provide clean energy to 19,500 homes.
The 190 acre site project will have a generating capacity of 40 megawatts (AC capacity) for distribution to the national grid and supports Doncaster Council’s wider objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2040 – 10 years earlier than national targets.
In 2019, Doncaster Council declared a climate and biodiversity emergency due to suffering the effects of climate change like increased flooding and serious wildfires. As a result, Doncaster Council is driving forward plans to improve energy efficiency in homes and accelerate plans to transition towards green transport.
Enviromena’s plans for Marr supports that objective in providing clean power to 19,500 homes and offsetting 13,200 tonnes of carbon. The site is also one part of Enviromena’s rapidly-growing portfolio of solar and battery storage projects going into planning over the next six months, which altogether make up an impressive 400MW pipeline of projects that will provide enough power for more than 150,0000 homes per annum.
As well as providing cleaner energy, the developments have been designed to blend in with the landscape and give consideration to local wildlife. The Marr site is anticipated to result in a 71% biodiversity net gain and a 47% gain in hedgerow units – hugely surpassing the national minimum target of 10%.
Enviromena recently announced intentions to grow its constructed and operational UK portfolio to over 500MW by 2025, as the company demonstrates its commitment to support the UK government’s drive to achieve net zero targets. Enviromena has more than 2GW of active solar farms and battery energy storage systems in development and operation throughout the UK and Europe.
Mark Harding, Enviromena’s European Development Director said: “We are delighted to submit plans for our project at Marr to the Doncaster City Council planning team. We’ve carried out significant engagement with the local community and councillors as part of our pre-application activities and all feedback has been considered when shaping our final plans to go into planning. The engagement with all project stakeholders will continue through the planning process.”
He added: “Marr is one of many projects that will be submitted into planning over the next six months that will deliver clean energy to 150,000 homes per annum. We are pushing forward at speed with our plans to expand our clean energy portfolio to more than 500MW by 2025.”
“At a time when fuel prices continue to look uncertain, we are pleased to see a number of our sites receive unanimous planning approval from local councils in recent times, which goes to show the eagerness and appetite for clean energy facilities.”
Enviromena is committed to leading the transition to a world powered by clean energy by providing safe, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions to customers across the UK and Europe.
