Huge solar and battery storage facility planned for rural Kent village

to build a huge solar array and battery storage facility in a rural village - which would be larger than 23 football pitches - will soon be decided. RNA Energy has applied to build the scheme on farmland in Water Lane in historic , near , in an area designated for its outstanding beauty. The site at Lower Ellenden Farm is in the High Weald National Landscape, and is just 900m from the centre of Hawkhurst, and a little more than two miles from the attractive market town of .

Although there are no listed buildings on the site, there are historic farmsteads around it including Furnace Mill Farmhouse. A solar array and battery storage means, as its name suggests, solar panels whose surplus electricity can be stored on the huge batteries, whose containers are 12m long and 3m high. This facility, covering more than 27 acres - or 15 hectares, would export up to 6MW of energy annually.



If permission is granted, it would be for 40 years. There is a lot of infrastructure needed, which includes: transformer stations, battery storage containers, a control centre building, a substation, 3.5m wide tracks, 2.

5km deer proof fencing, and 16 CCTV cameras at 3m tall. There would be a connection at Hawkhurst substation. There were 40 letters of objection, with reasons including harm to the landscape, highways concerns, impact on ancient woodlands, flooding, and food security.

However, there were 18 letters of support, including contribution to NetZero, economic benefits, energy prices and biodiversity net gain. objected and gave a long and wide-ranging list of further information it required, including the chemistries of the batteries, the type of containers, a detailed diagram of the site, details of fire resistant design features, on site water supplies, ventilation systems, detection systems for smoke, fire and gas, and a fire management plan. also objected, asking for more information, including for management of construction traffic and full automated traffic surveys.

Other objectors included the countryside charity CPRE, and the High Weald National Landscape unit. The report, ahead of the planning meeting next Wednesday (April 30), which recommends councillors refuse the application, states there is a public footpath which "runs directly" through the site. There are other public footpaths along a boundary.

The council said it had asked RNA Energy for information about the power this site could generate, and for it to be equated to the number of homes it could supply, but it was not provided, said the report. As part of the summing up in the report, it said: "The benefit of renewable energy generation has been afforded significant weight in the balancing exercise, however, this does not outweigh the substantial and long-term harm caused to the National Landscape." And in another part: "The development would introduce urban and utilitarian infrastructure to an area designated for its outstanding beauty, the High Weald National Landscape.

"The significant landscape harm that would occur is spatially and temporally significant and is not outweighed by the moderate benefits of the scheme." Hawkhurst Parish Council had given a lengthy response of what it saw were the pros and cons of the facility, and asked for confirmation there would be no lighting proposed for the site, save above access doors to buildings. It also stressed the importance of agricultural use continuing on the site, for grazing sheep alongside the solar panels.

The report summed up the parish council's conclusion thus: "On balance, due to the public benefit of the provision of solar energy, coupled with the fact that the site is, on the whole, well-shielded (even in January, there is very limited visibility, and this will be further improved by the proposed planting scheme) Hawkhurst Parish Council (HPC) is prepared to support this application. "However, this is on the assumption that the concerns of KCC Highways and Kent Fire and Rescue Service can be satisfactorily addressed, and that HPC's requests regarding continued agricultural use and no lighting are agreed.".