Banks Renewables’ proposals for a solar and storage project in South Yorkshire have won the backing of a local Rotherham Metropolitan Borough councillor.
Councillor Benjamin Whomersley (pictured) is supporting the planning application from Banks Renewables for its proposed solar and battery energy park at a 116-hectare site to the west of the Todwick Road Industrial Estate in Dinnington.
The Common Farm Solar Energy Park would sit around three miles to the east of Banks’ Penny Hill Wind Farm and would have an installed capacity of up to 49MW, along with a 50MW battery storage facility.
Cllr Whomersley, who represents the Dinnington Ward, believes that the long-term community improvements that could be secured through the £2m benefits package that would come as part of the project have led many local people to also take a positive view of the scheme.
As part of the company’s policy of delivering tangible benefits to the places in which its operations are based, the project would also deliver an annual package of community benefits totalling £50,000, or more than £2m through its lifetime, to support local community projects.
Cllr Whomersley said: “I’m a strong advocate of maximising the use of renewable energy in meeting our current and future energy needs.
“This project would have a strong contribution to make in this respect, while also bringing jobs and investment to the local area, and the benefits package that is part of it could be used to meet a wide range of community improvement priorities for many years to come.
“Many of the local people that I’ve spoken to recognise the positive impact that this funding would have on their community and they’re aligned with it happening.
“The solar energy park couldn’t be in a better location in terms of being out of the way and I would very much hope to see these plans moving forward in the near future.”
A detailed ecology and biodiversity strategy which would ensure the site delivers a net benefit in biodiversity to the local community also forms part of the Common Farm Solar Energy Park proposal, with the ground around and beneath the solar panels being used to create a wildflower meadow.
There would also be increased planting of hedgerows, while part of the site will also be managed to encouraged Lapwings to thrive.
A battery electricity storage system would link directly into the Thurcroft electricity sub-station around three kilometres to the north of the site.