Stark Energy

Stark Energy is excited to announce the successful planning approval of our latest project, the ‘Five Lanes Solar Project’, which has been developed on land owned by The Charlton Park Estate in Wiltshire. When connected, the project will provide 50MW of solar generation capacity to the grid, powering up to 15,000 homes. The project will be operational for 40 years, before the panels are removed and the land returned to agricultural use. Stark worked with the Charlton Park Estate to select some of the Estate’s lowest quality farmland, and the final project area was selected to minimize the visual impact on the surrounding rural landscape. During the operational life of the project, the land will not be cultivated which will allow time for soil nutrients to be replenished, improving the agricultural yield when the land returns to crop growth. Furthermore, bird boxes, bat boxes, log piles for invertebrates and a species-rich grassland have all been incorporated into the design of the project which will result in a significant biodiversity net gain for the site. The Five Lanes Solar Project is the ninth Stark Energy project to be granted approval since the company was founded in early 2019 and maintains Stark’s 100% success rate in gaining planning consent for our projects, where Stark is ably supported by its planning consultant Lighthouse Development Consulting. The approval of the Five Lanes Solar Project takes the total approved capacity across all projects to 380MW, which, once connected, will provide enough electricity to power 114,000 UK homes. Stark’s prior projects are now all under construction or entering the construction phase, with the first export expected in early 2024. Looking forward, Stark is developing a further 825MW of UK solar PV projects, which are either currently in the planning system or will be submitted into planning over the next 12 months. #renewables #renewableenergy #climatechange #solar #solarenergy #planning #netzero #biodiversity