Lutterworth

Solar Farm

Providing Clean Energy for Rugby

Enviromena is preparing to submit a planning application to Rugby Borough Council for a solar farm located on land off Coal Pit Lane, Rugby, Warwickshire.

The proposed solar farm will have a capacity of 16MW. The solar farm will create enough clean, renewable energy to power approximately 7,790 homes per annum. The solar farm would avoid 4,355 tonnes of CO2e annually (compared to other non-renewable forms of energy generation), which is the equivalent of taking 3,125 cars off the road each year.

Where is the proposed site?

The Benefits

  • The solar farm will assist Rugby Borough Council in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with national and local targets in response to the Climate Emergency.

  • The project will deliver biodiversity net gains. Solar farm installations have a small footprint on the land they occupy, leaving considerable scope for ecological enhancements. Research has shown that responsibly managed solar farms can play an important role in reducing the decline in biodiversity.

  • Existing trees and hedgerows will be retained and protected and supplemented by additional native species planting to support local habitats as part of a wider ecological network.

  • The net zero sector grew by 10% in 2024, three times faster than the overall UK economy. The development of green projects like Lutterworth Solar Farm are therefore vital to create business opportunities and economic activity which contribute to the country’s green recovery.

  • We are committed to using local suppliers and contractors during the construction and the long-term operation of the project, which will benefit the local economy, and provide jobs to people in the local area.

  • The proposal does not require the stopping or diversion of any public rights of way.

  • This is a temporary development, allowing the land to rest for the period of operation up to 40 years. Decommissioning and full restoration of the site at the end of life of the development will be secured via planning condition.

  • The project does not require Government subsidies.

  • Lutterworth Solar Farm will generate c. £45,000 per annum in business rates for Rugby Borough Council.

About Us

Enviromena, the developer of this project, is a clean energy solutions company providing safe, affordable, and reliable solutions for growing sustainable power demands. Headquartered in the UK, Enviromena has more than 17 years’ global experience in developing, designing, constructing, managing, and operating ground-breaking renewable energy projects.

Enviromena have installed over 17,000 power systems globally and currently manages, operates, and maintains over 300 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy assets including solar and energy storage projects. Additionally, Enviromena currently has a further 3GW in construction and development across the UK and Italy.

FAQ

  • There is an urgent need to generate energy from new, affordable, and environmentally friendly sources, and solar power emerges as the most cost-effective and rapidly deployable among all energy sources. Analysis by the UK Government showed that the levelised cost of electricity (the average cost of generating one unit of electricity over a power plant’s lifetime) for solar is £41/MWh, cheaper than both offshore wind (£44/MWh) and natural gas (£114/MWh).

    Solar power is already yielding tangible results. For instance, during the period from June to August in 2022, solar power frequently contributed up to 25% of the UK’s daytime electricity (according to the National Grid ESO carbon app).

    Even in winter, solar panel technology is still effective; at one point in February 2022, solar was providing more than 20% of the UK’s electricity (According to the National Grid).

    Solar power is a core part of the Government’s net zero target, and it intends to more than triple solar power capacity by 2030. Achieving this objective requires the deployment of larger scale solar farms as well as on the rooftops of industrial and residential buildings.

  • The solar farm is a temporary development and will not change the land classification. Once the solar farm is no longer in operation it will be decommissioned and the land will return to its previous agricultural usage.

  • The UK Food Security Report (2021) found that “the biggest medium to long term risk to the UK’s domestic production comes from climate change and other environmental pressures like soil degradation, water quality and biodiversity”. Solar farms currently account for 0.08% of total land use in the UK (Solar Energy UK 2022).

    In order to reach the Government’s target of a fivefold increase in solar by 2035, it is estimated that 0.3% of the UK’s land area would need to be used for solar farms. (Carbon Brief, 2022). This is the equivalent to around half of the space used by golf courses.

  • "BNG is an approach to development. It makes sure that habitats for wildlife are left in a measurably better state than they were before the development. In England, BNG is mandatory under Schedule 7A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as inserted by Schedule 14 of the Environment Act 2021). Developers must deliver a BNG of 10%. This means a development will result in more or better quality natural habitat than there was before development.” (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-biodiversity-net-gain).

  • The site for Lutterworth Solar Farm has been carefully selected as part of a detailed site assessment process. Considerations have been made on all the following, to ensure this site is the most appropriate one for our scheme: grid capacity with onsite point of connection, land availability, heritage assets, flood risk and agricultural land quality.

  • No. Solar panels have no moving parts and emit no sound. Inverters and transformers can emit very low-level sound, but these are sited away from houses and public rights of way and cannot be heard from more than a few metres away.

  • There is no evidence that solar farms have a negative impact on wildlife. In fact, wildlife thrives within the sites when managed sensitively.

    We are committed to significant net biodiversity gain at Lutterworth Solar Farm through the creation of new habitats to support local wildlife. Existing hedgerows will be strengthened and new hedgerows will be planted to improve habitat connectivity across the site. We will set aside a significant proportion of the land for habitats to support mammals, birds and invertebrates.

    Further ecological enhancement measures such as bird boxes and bat boxes will be placed within the site to encourage those populations to prosper.

  • It typically takes 6-9 months to build a solar farm of this size. Site working would typically be Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings only.

    A construction traffic management plan will be conditioned and subject to detailed liaison with the highways department post planning. Once the solar farm is constructed, monitoring will be carried out remotely, minimising visits by maintenance staff.

Contact Us

If you wish to contact us or require further information, please feel free to use the form (situated to the right) or by the following methods:

Email adress: feedback@alpacacommunications.com

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