JBM Solar receives greenlight for 49.9MW solar farm. Image: Getty.
JBM Solar has received the green light to develop a 49.9MW solar farm, co-located with battery storage, at Hinckley and Bosworth.
The proposed Stoneshollow Solar Farm will be developed with the project having been granted planning permission at committee by a 15 to 0 vote.
This forms part of JBM’s commitment to deliver a 2GW UK solar pipeline in the next three years.
The solar project will have several key aspects which will maximise the biodiversity output of the project and be incorporated into the natural countryside.
Plans include the design of a three-acre outdoor classroom and educational space, equipped with a wildflower meadow, seating area, butterfly habitat and a new copse woodland.
Alongside this, the company will also look to create a new 2.6km looped walk, on otherwise private land, along the beautiful ‘bassoon’ brook.
A planting programme for one of the UK’s rarest native timber trees, the Black Poplar, will also be incorporated helping to create the largest single colony of Black Poplar trees anywhere in the UK, stated the firm.
Lastly, the project will look to achieve a biodiversity net gain of over 92%, 9x the standard, with over 20 acres of dedicated wildflower meadow, and more than 3.8km of tree and hedge planting.
German renewables giant BayWa r.e. recently acquired 99.8MW of subsidy-free co-located solar sites from JBM Solar consisting of two consented sites, the first the Corner Copse project near Swindon and the second Scurf Dyke near Hull.
Both are 49.9MW sites that received planning permission in 2020 and are set to come on stream in 2023. They will utilise bifacial module technology, and be co-located with onsite battery storage technology.