Elwy Solar Energy Farm – Managing your feedback during Coronavirus

Following Solarcentury’s decision to postpone its Local Information Days at Bodelwyddan Community Centre and at St. Asaph Cricket Club due to Coronavirus, Solarcentury has now put all the information day material online.

All the material that was going to be presented at the information days is now available at the company’s project website develop.solarcentury-refresh.greenlightdigital.com/elwy including copies of the information boards outlining the scheme and a feedback form which residents and businesses can complete online. Paper copies can also be made available for anyone without internet access by calling 0207 549 1299.

The information sessions were organised by Solarcentury to share outline plans about their proposed solar energy farm near St. Asaph – Elwy Solar Energy Farm. They were due to take place on Wednesday 11^th March at Bodelwyddan Community Centre and Thursday 12^th March at St. Asaph Cricket Club but had to be postponed.

Chris Banks, UK Business Development Manager at Solarcentury said:

“Solarcentury made this difficult decision because of the changing situation with Coronavirus. Bringing lots of people together in one place did not seem the sensible thing to do especially when we can make information available by other means. Since 11^th March the Government has changed its advice significantly on Coronavirus so, like many companies, we are no longer able to meet people face to face but are able to communicate by email, by telephone and online”.

“We are grateful to the St. Asaph and Bodelwyddan communities for their understanding in our decision to postpone these events and look forward to sharing more information with them at a later date. We are not submitting the planning application for Elwy Solar Energy Farm until later this year – our current plan is for late summer 2020 – so there is still plenty of time for us to collate feedback and views”.

Solarcentury is now considering how best to engage with the local community going forward so that a genuine dialogue can be maintained as the project progresses.

For the immediate future residents and businesses can get information and give feedback on the outline plans in the following ways. Any questions and concerns will be answered this way too.

• By reading information on the project website: develop.solarcentury-refresh.greenlightdigital.com/elwy.
• By emailing us at elwysolar@solarcentury.com
• By calling us on 0207 549 1299 to speak to a member of the project team.
• By completing the online survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/elwysolar

Solarcentury will continue with the preparatory work associated with this project including the landscape and ecological assessments, grid connection work, and fine tuning the design. It has also recently submitted the administrative ‘notice to submit’ document to the Planning Inspectorate, which means Solarcentury now have 12 months within which to submit the formal planning application.

Solarcentury believes that solar energy farms like Elwy, are the clean, green key to fighting climate chaos. Generating electricity from solar reduces dependence on fossil fuels, gives us a simple low risk source of home-grown energy with predictable annual performance, and allows large amounts of clean energy to be delivered to the national grid.

There are local benefits too. Subject to planning approval, Elwy Solar has the potential to create local jobs and numerous supply contracts during the construction, operation and maintenance phase of the build, and contribute business rates to the local council. In addition the variety of dry and wet and shaded and sunny areas on a solar energy farm, once properly planted and managed, can support a wide variety of wildlife, including birds, bats and bumblebees; making this a great opportunity for wildlife locally.

Solarcentury look forward to receiving more feedback from the community as the project progresses and are happy to be contacted via the ways above should anyone have any questions.

–Ends–

Notes to Editors:

Solarcentury, one of the UK’s leading solar power companies, is evaluating land to the north east of St. Asaph for the development of a new solar energy farm – Elwy Solar Energy Farm.

The land identified is north of the A55 North Wales Expressway and west of the A525 and has been carefully chosen for its potential to deliver high levels of solar-powered electricity to the grid. With a solar project of up to 62MWp proposed, the site would generate approximately 60 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to power over 20,000 homes, via an array of solar panels mounted on the ground. Solarcentury is also proposing to install batteries at the site in order to store the electricity generated for use during the day and the night.

Established in 1998, Solarcentury is a global integrated solar power company, and a leader in the development, construction and operation of solar projects and smart energy technology at all scales, across Europe, Latin America and Africa.

Independent and headquartered in the UK, Solarcentury is known internationally for developing and building some of the largest solar farms in the UK, Netherlands, Spain, Kenya and Mexico, as well as other pioneering projects including the world’s first solar bridge at Blackfriars Station in Central London and IKEA’s residential solar offer in Europe.

Find more information on the company at develop.solarcentury-refresh.greenlightdigital.com/about

For questions about this press release contact Nicola Perkin on 0207 549 1299.