This was the third time the application was heard at the Planning Committee, having been deferred twice before. Firstly, to allow members to visit the site and secondly to allow additional amendments to further reduce the visual impact when viewed from the south of the site.

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George Wilyman, Head of Planning UK at Aura Power spoke at the committee meeting and said “We have further engaged proactively with Planning and Landscape Officers and amended the scheme, to include additional landscape mitigation within the south of the site.” He went on to say that “the policy position and support for renewable energy generation in the UK is clear; The Government's Energy White Paper described solar as a key building block of the future energy generation mix with the Net Zero Strategy stating that the UK will be powered entirely by clean energy by 2035, with an anticipated five fold increase in solar capacity by 2035.”

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East Devon has declared a climate emergency and is committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2040. 

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We have calculated that the solar farm will power the equivalent of 21% of all East Devon homes, and takes the renewable generation in the authority to 34% of its net zero requirement. The proposal includes extensive ecological enhancements that are calculated to provide a net gain of over 21% for habitats and over 44% for hedgerows, supporting East Devon’s Nature Recovery Strategy and Biodiversity Emergency. 

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Founder and COO, Ben Moore said “We are really pleased to receive approval for this project. It has always been a great site, compact and well hidden. We are grateful to the local community who have been very cooperative in understanding the importance of these projects and look forward to seeing, in time, how the community benefit fund is used”. 

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We offer a community benefit fund across all of our UK solar projects. Their community benefit fund is designed to support local social, educational and environmental projects in the local community. 

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Construction start dates have yet to be set, but the local community will be notified in advance when dates have been confirmed.

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Horton solar farm is part of a further c.80 MW of Aura Power’s solar proposals currently awaiting planning decisions in various locations across the UK. The past year has been one of Aura Power’s most successful yet, as they celebrate their 10th year in the industry, having gained planning approval for c.490 MW of solar and battery storage projects in the UK alone. Aura Power is working on a maturing 20 GW pipeline of solar PV and battery energy storage not only in the UK but in Europe and North America.