News and updates

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Residents of Romney Marsh strongly oppose SSE Renewables’ proposed 1000-acre Shepway Energy Park sited on prime farm land to the north of the village of Newchurch and west of Dymchurch. 

The proposed solar and battery storage plant would consist of 200MW of solar energy capacity and 400MW of battery storage to the north and east of Newchurch, and bordering Enviromena’s proposed 100 acre solar energy farm near Dymchurch. The company say it would generate enough electricity to power approximately 73,000 homes and save 49,0000 tonnes of carbon per year.

Members of Hands Off Our Marsh, a local community group, fear this scheme is the latest in a series of giant industrial-scale solar energy proposals that threaten to irreversibly damage the unique character, environment, agricultural heritage and tourist economy of Romney Marsh.

Key concerns

• Inefficient use of prime farm land
• Risk of industrial solar sprawl across Romney Marsh’s unique open and green landscape
• Government, developers and investors are favouring farm land over rooftops and brownfield 
• Large-scale lithium ion battery storage poses a danger to water, wildlife and human life
• Community concerns are not considered a priority despite citizens paying for these schemes through levies and subsidies added to consumer energy bills
• Small Modular Reactor nuclear technology a more sustainable, more efficient and more welcome energy solution for Romney Marsh 

Prime farm land targeted

The huge solar panel and lithium ion battery (BESS) scheme would cover approximately 1000 acres of best and most versatile (BMV) farm land - an area equivalent to the size of 560 football pitches - to the north and Newchurch and west of Dymchurch. It would have an installed generating capacity of 200MW of solar energy and double the amount of battery storage. The scheme would include infrastructure such as solar panels, inverters, transformers, battery storage containers, cabling, security lighting, fencing and CCTV). It also includes a new substation on land which normally grows wheat, peas and oil seed rape. The farm land is also an area where skylarks nest. 

Inefficient use of prime arable land

A recent report by the UK Solar Alliance revealed that last year UK solar farms averaged just 9.9% efficiency according to the government’s own figures. This means that the solar plant would generate an annual average of less than 10% of its actual capability due to the intermittency of sunshine in the UK and short daylight hours in winter when electricity is most needed. 

“This is a hugely inefficient use of vital top quality arable land that can produce a range of different crops. As weather patterns become more unpredictable, we need to protect the best and most versatile land for adapting our domestic agriculture and growing more climate-resilient crops. Smothering the best and most fertile land in glass panels, battery storage containers and permanent infrastructure like a large substation is irresponsible,” says Amanda Farrant, one of the organisers behind the Hands Off Our Marsh campaign and whose home and creative business will be surrounded by the vast energy proposals.

The UK is currently dependent on imports for at least 40% of our food. The group warn that the current explosion of giant solar energy proposals like this across the country will make us more dependent on imported food from other countries. Importing food will also create additional carbon emissions, what the government is saying have to be cut to meet global Net Zero goals.

Scheme contributes to impending solar sprawl

This new proposal is in addition to Low Carbon’s 1500 acre 500MW South Kent Energy Park and battery storage proposal along the historic Rhee Wall between Brenzett and New Romney, covering an area equivalent to 840 football pitches. Like the SSE proposal, the South Kent Energy Park would remove some of the best farmland on Romney Marsh and in the UK from food production. The South Kent Energy Park’s infrastructure (including solar panels, inverters, transformers, battery storage containers, security lighting, fencing and CCTV) would totally envelop Old Romney village and could harm historic settings such as the church ruins at Midley and Hope All Saints.

The two schemes, just 5 miles apart, would be the largest solar plants in Kent to date, with several more for Romney Marsh believed to be in the pipeline but not yet made public. The schemes would be visible from villages overlooking the Marsh including Ruckinge, Bilsington, Bonnington, Aldington, Court at Street and Lympne.

Both companies’ schemes are considered Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) as the installed capacity is greater than 100MW. This means they don’t go through the local council for planning permission, instead go through a multi-year national examination process by the Planning Inspectorate with a final Development Consent Order approved by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband. The first NSIP solar and battery scheme approved for Kent, the 350MW ‘Project Fortress’ at Cleve Hill near Faversham, will go into operation later this year. Aldington’s 99.99MW Stone Street Green Solar project is also currently under examination by the Planning Inspectorate with a decision due soon.

Another energy developer, Enviromena, has also submitted a local planning application with Folkestone and Hythe District Council for a smaller 16MW St Mary in the Marsh solar scheme on approximately 100 acres of fertile arable land just outside Newchurch between Dymchurch and St Mary in the Marsh. This scheme would directly border the Shepway Energy Park.

Quintas Cleantech’s proposed 35MW Pond Wood Solar Farm between nearby Woodchurch and Kenardington is yet another solar scheme which will soon be submitted to Ashford Borough Council’s planning department for consideration.

The reckless solar rush by developers favours green spaces leaving brownfield and rooftops as wasted space

Government and industry claim that only 0.6% of the UK land mass is currently used for solar energy generation. Yet, the UK Solar Alliance report found that, operational and planned NSIP-scale schemes alone already amount to around 1.3% of UK cropland, with yet more smaller ground-mounted solar schemes under construction or in the pipeline, and yet more NSIPs coming to light. 

The report found that 23% of the land targeted for solar so far is graded as top grade 1 and 2 in the Agricultural Land Classification system and a further 66% is grade 3. Yet, a CPRE report cites a University College of London study which estimates that there is 650km2 of non-domestic and domestic rooftops and car parks that could be used for solar power instead, in England alone.

Hands Off Our Marsh warn that the rapid expansion of solar developments in rural areas, particularly without thorough strategic government oversight, risks undermining vital national priorities like domestic food production and rural tourism. The group believes that the government needs to take more responsibility over where utility-scale solar energy is being developed to protect vital agricultural assets like Grade 1 and 2 land, rather than leaving it in the hands of energy speculators, investors and landowners to decide where to site Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

“The reckless greenrush by solar energy investors and developers is threatening to overwhelm our important farming, tourism, heritage and nature areas, not just on the Romney Marsh but around the country. Yet rooftops, brownfield sites and car parks remain underused for solar energy generation,” says Amanda Farrant. “Why target the best farm land first, especially given the fragile geopolitical situation today? National food security must not come as a sloppy second behind energy security.”

Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) pose danger to life near homes and water 

Both the SSE Renewables and Low Carbon proposals would include large lithium ion battery storage facilities which allow dispatch of up to one or two hours of stored energy to meet consumer needs when there’s no sunlight. A major report from Professor Peter Edwards and Peter Dobson of Oxford University warns that large BESS could cause catastrophic explosions, toxic gas clouds, and firewater contamination near homes, water supplies and environmental designated sites like Romney Marsh’s nearby Ramsar, SSSI, Local and National Nature Reserves, and Special Protection and Conservation Areas.

The growing number of BESS fires in the UK and other countries is showing that if a battery unit catches on fire, it cannot be put out with water and has to be left to burn out, while residents must stay concealed in their homes to avoid potentially fatal gases, sometimes for days on end.

Hands Off Our Marsh are concerned that there are no safety laws in the UK that deal with BESS and no official guidance exists for fire services dealing with such fires.

BESS are attractive investments for energy developers because they can make large profits by storing generated energy or buying off the grid when energy is cheap and then selling it back into the grid when the price increases at peak times. The proposal from SSE Renewables including double the amount of battery storage capacity for Shepway Energy Park than solar capacity indicates that this might be their intention.

Communities deserve a greater say

Based on experiences from other communities around the country, members of Hands Off Our Marsh are concerned that developers and decision makers are treating statutory community consultation processes as a tick box exercise. 

“We see from other large NSIP schemes around the country that community concerns are mostly being ignored as NSIP projects get rubber stamped. The impact on people and wildlife must be given more priority in decision making processes. We are the ones who have to bear the brunt of the impacts, yet receive net zero benefit.”

“While we recognise we need new energy solutions, the best solutions are those that work for local communities and consumers, not just for Ministers’ overzealous targets, or the pockets of developers, investors and landowners.”

The group point out that residents living next to these sprawling schemes, as energy consumers, are ultimately contributing to the costs of them through the huge levies and subsidies added to energy bills which pay for the UK’s Net Zero transition. “We deserve more of a say in what types of energy are most appropriate for our environments and where the new energy infrastructure is best placed. The final decision cannot just rest with one man and his ideological zeal, Secretary of State Ed Miliband.”

New nuclear technology is more viable and would create more jobs locally

Hands Off Our Marsh is calling instead for the latest small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) or advanced modular reactor technology to be installed at Dungeness, the site of two decommissioned nuclear reactors. Small Modular Reactors are more compact than traditional nuclear power plants and require smaller initial investment. They can be deployed in as little as three years due to their modular, factory fabricated design.

“We have the existing skilled workforce and infrastructure on Romney Marsh for nuclear generation. SMR nuclear is a more predictable and stable form of power that would work well in our existing grid system and doesn’t depend on the weather or daylight. It would provide hundreds of jobs here on Romney Marsh, unlike weather-dependent schemes such as the SSE and Low Carbon proposals which will generate very few jobs for local people and could even harm many businesses in the area.”

National Community Walk to raise awareness

Hands Off Our Marsh intends to raise awareness about the threat of an over abundance of ill-thought out industrial solar and battery schemes on Romney Marsh as part of a National Community Walk event on June 8th. 

So far 25 walks are planned across counties affected by large solar schemes on vast areas of productive UK farmland. 

“We are not NIMBYS. We are walking to blow the whistle about the recklessness of this mad dash to install energy solutions that are unreliable, unpredictable and unsafe, and that also contribute to decreasing the UK’s homegrown food supplies and weaken our national food security.”

The Romney Marsh community walk will set off at 10 am on June 8th from outside the Rose & Crown pub at Old Romney and will follow public footpaths around areas of land proposed for the South Kent Energy Park. To find out more, visit www.handsoffourmarsh.org or contact info@handsoffourmarsh.org.