In England, a public consultation with Derbyshire County Council addressing its plan to turn a former coal mine into a solar farm is drawing to a close.
Williamthorpe Colliery was a mine near Chesterfield that operated from 1905 to 1970, but now the land is a county-owned nature reserve. A consultation on the transformation plan has set its deadline for comments from residents for Friday.
In 2015, plans for solar panels on two fields were approved but, following the UK’s government’s withdrawal of money for renewable energy projects, planning permission expired and the plans did not go ahead.
A new bid has been proposed for approximately 14,000 ground-mounted panels and infrastructure, which will be similar in size to the previous scheme. A decision is due to be made about the application soon.
According to Derbyshire County Council, the solar panels could produce about 3m kWh of electricity annually. Carolyn Renwick, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Environment, explained:
“In recent years, the issue of climate change has become increasingly important. The need to switch towards renewable energy – away from fossil fuels – is a necessary part of the UK strategy to reduce carbon emissions and our journey to becoming a net zero council by 2032 or sooner.
“That’s why we’re looking to put this former colliery land to good use to generate ‘clean’ renewable energy to help tackle climate change.”
