A CONTROVERSIAL proposal to create a solar farm in Crick, near Caldicot will go before County Councillors next week.

The council’s planning officers are recommending the committee approve the council’s application for a 22,660 solar panel farm on land at Oak Grove Farm.

The council said the 39-acre site is currently used for sheep pasture. The one-metre high ground mounted solar panels would sit in 44 rows, generating enough power for about 4,000 homes and saving 2,395 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.

It would generate £1,500 from the land each year and an income of £60,000 a year.

In July, councillors approved to plough £350,000 into the scheme, if approved, which would be used to start work on the farm’s connection to the National Grid. Based on the UK Government’s current Feed In Tariff (FIT) scheme the could would stand to make £2.353 million over 20 years.

Money would be taken from the scheme for Monmouthshire community projects. This would last for 20 years and total £5,000 a year.

The proposal also includes a two-metre high security fence with wooden poles placed every three metres would be put in place, together with 22 CCTV cameras which would only record within the footprint of the scheme. There would not be any external lighting and a distance of five metres between the panels and the boundary hedge established to act as a corridor for both humans and wildlife to move around the site.

Construction of the site would require deliveries by large articulated vehicles and a mobile crane, making 69 two-way trips during the most intensive two-weeks of construction. Longer term access would be maintained via the existing access to Oak Farm Grove for small vehicles.

If approved, Monmouthshire council would be only one of a select group of local authorities who run their own solar farm.

The application is due to be discussed at the council’s headquarters, near Usk on September 8.