Solar farms on farmland: the land quality argument

Solar farm applications on agricultural land are decided on two things: what the land is worth for farming, and what the scheme looks like from the footpath. The second gets the objections. The first decides the officer's recommendation, and it is the one developers are least prepared for, because the answer is not available from any published map.

Best and most versatile land means grades 1, 2 and 3a. The published provisional classification mapping does not separate 3a from 3b. It shows a single grade 3, and on lowland arable England a great deal of the country falls into it. So the map cannot tell you whether your site is best and most versatile, and the whole policy argument turns on that distinction.

What the classification measures

The system grades land by the degree to which physical characteristics limit its agricultural use. Climate comes first and cannot be mitigated: rainfall, temperature, exposure, altitude. Site factors come next: gradient, flood risk, microrelief. Soil factors come last and take the most work: texture, depth, stoniness, and wetness class derived from the interaction between soil and climate.

Those combine into grades 1 through 5, with grade 3 divided into 3a, good quality, and 3b, moderate quality.

The interaction between soil and climate is what makes provisional mapping unreliable at site level. A soil that is grade 2 in a dry eastern county can be grade 3b in a wetter western one, because wetness class depends on rainfall. Mapping produced at a small scale for regional purposes cannot capture that at field level.

Commissioning the survey properly

A detailed survey means fieldwork. Auger borings on a grid, conventionally at a density of around one per hectare, with soil pits dug to confirm the profile at representative points, and each boring described for texture, stone content, depth and mottling.

Three points on programme.

Commission it at option stage. The result can kill a site, and it is far better to know that before the grid connection deposit is paid.

Protect the window. The ground has to be augerable, which rules out frozen and saturated conditions. On heavy land in a wet winter the survey simply cannot be done, and a scheme waiting on it loses months.

Use someone qualified. Councils expect the survey to be carried out by a soil scientist working to the recognised guidelines, and the survey report should include the boring locations, the field descriptions, the grade assigned to each parcel and a plan showing the graded areas. Set out the results in an Agricultural Land Classification report rather than as an appendix nobody reads, and expect professional review of the work.

The result is frequently better than feared. Sites shown as provisional grade 3 often survey out as substantially 3b, and that finding does more for an application than any amount of policy argument.

Framing the temporary and reversible case

Where some best and most versatile land is affected, the argument that carries weight is that a solar farm is not a loss of that land. It is a change in its use for a defined period.

Make that concrete rather than asserting it.

State the period. Permissions are commonly sought for a defined operational life with a condition requiring decommissioning and restoration at the end, and the period should be stated in the description of development.

Describe the construction method. Piled or screw foundations rather than concrete pads. Cable trenches reinstated with topsoil and subsoil returned in sequence. Internal tracks built over a geotextile so that the material can be lifted and the soil profile recovered. Minimal permanent structures, with substation and storage compounds sited on the poorest land available.

Describe soil protection during construction. A soil resource survey, a soil management plan setting out when machinery may travel and how soils are stripped and stored, and a named person responsible for stopping work when conditions are too wet.

Describe the end. A decommissioning and restoration scheme secured by condition, including removal of all above ground and below ground infrastructure to an agreed depth, decompaction, and reinstatement to agricultural use.

Then say what happens in between: sheep grazing, wildflower understorey, hedgerow restoration and the soil carbon benefit of taking arable land out of cultivation for a generation.

Landscape, and the mitigation that is available

Solar farms are low, wide and regular. They are rarely visible from far away and they are very visible from close by, particularly from public rights of way crossing or bounding the site.

A Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment prepared to the recognised guidelines is standard for a scheme of any size. Two things determine its usefulness: viewpoints agreed with the council rather than chosen, and honest treatment of the years before planting matures.

The mitigation available is limited but effective. Set the array back from field boundaries. Reinforce existing hedgerows and let them grow taller rather than planting new belts that read as suburban. Keep the array off ridgelines and out of the skyline from the nearest footpath. Screen the substation compound properly, since it is the tallest and most industrial element. Use dark, non-reflective fencing and keep security lighting to a passive system triggered only by intrusion.

Cumulative effect is the argument that defeats schemes in areas already carrying solar. Map the consented and operational schemes within the study area and assess the combined effect rather than waiting for an objector to do it.

Community response and the pre-application step

Objections to solar farms cluster around three themes: loss of farmland, the appearance of the site from homes and footpaths, and construction traffic through villages. All three are answerable, and all three are answered better before the application than after it.

Run the consultation early enough to change something. A meeting held after the layout is fixed produces the same objections with more anger attached. A meeting held while the array boundary is still movable frequently ends with a hedge in a different place and one fewer objector.

Bring the land survey findings to it. The single most effective thing a developer can say at a village hall meeting is that the site was surveyed, that the results are published in the application, and that the panels sit on the poorer land. It converts an argument about principle into a conversation about detail.

The workstreams that run in parallel

Glint and glare assessment is expected where the site is near an aerodrome, a railway or a road on an alignment that could receive reflection. Aerodrome safeguarding consultation, including defence safeguarding where relevant, runs on its own timetable and should start early.

Biodiversity net gain applies, and a solar farm is unusually well placed to deliver it on site through grassland creation and hedgerow planting. Get the Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment done by a competent person as the Environment Act 2021 regime requires, and design the habitat scheme alongside the array rather than after it.

Grid connection, archaeology, drainage and construction access all have their own lead times, and the construction traffic route through a village is a common reason for objection.

Finally, scale determines the consent route. Above the statutory capacity threshold, solar generating stations in England are nationally significant infrastructure projects consented by development consent order under the Planning Act 2008 rather than by the local planning authority. That threshold has been the subject of change, so confirm the current figure before deciding which route a scheme takes.

Pull the whole case together in a Planning Statement that leads with the land classification finding, sets the temporary and reversible framing early, and deals with landscape and cumulative effect head on. To see which documents a rural energy scheme is likely to need, check a site by postcode.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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