Renewable energy developer Anesco has been granted approval to construct a 3MW ground-mounted solar farm in Littlehampton, the first such solar project in the area.
The project was given the green light at an Arun Development Control Committee (ADCC) meeting held on Wednesday, during which the planning report for the site submitted last month was read.
The farm, to be constructed on land at Brook Barn Farm in Littlehampton, is to be split across two sites totalling 5.2 hectares and will comprise a total number of 13,200 solar panels.
The land is a former landfill site and is currently rated as lower grade agricultural land, however Littlehampton Town Council received 13 individual objections to the proposals, including one from parliamentary candidate Nick Gibb.
Most objections centred on the project being build on Greenfield land with no evidence of a search being conducted for less sensitive sites nearby.
However the planning inspector’s report said there was no policy requirement for the company to conduct such a search and after consulting a number of stakeholders in the site recommended that the project receive full planning permission, a recommendation which was upheld by the ADCC.
The approval comes a month after Anesco started work on a 5MW project being constructed on the former Askern Colliery site in Doncaster and brought its 6.9MW solar farm in Pen Y Cae, South Wales, online.
Anesco has yet to reply to requests for comment from Solar Power Portal, and it remains unclear as to when construction of the site will commence.