Renewable Energy

Markfield Parish Neighbourhood Plan: Referendum Version

that they would like to make Markfield Parish as carbon neutral as possible by 2036. Renewable Energy

4.40. Increasing the amount of energy from renewable and low carbon technologies will help ensure the UK has a secure energy supply, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow down climate change and stimulate investment in new jobs and businesses. Planning has an important role in the delivery of new renewable and low carbon energy infrastructure in locations where the local environmental impact is acceptable. 4.41. Land Use Consultants Ltd (LUC) and the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) were commissioned to prepare a Renewable Energy Capacity Study for Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. The 2014 study concluded that the technical potential for renewable and low carbon energy within the Borough is substantial and the technologies with the greatest technical resource for electricity generation are wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) (particularly solar farms) and ground source/air source heat pumps which domestically do not generate electricity but use electricity in an environmentally beneficial way to pump heat energy into the property. 4.42. Our 2019 Questionnaire Survey showed that small-scale renewable energy technologies integrated with new buildings or fitted to existing buildings was given the highest level of priority from respondents. Local Solar Energy Farms was also popular, with the least popular being ‘Local Wind Farms’. Solar Farms 4.43. Solar farms (sometimes known as solar parks or solar fields) are the largescale application of solar PV panels to generate green, clean electricity at scale, usually to feed into the grid. Solar farms can cover anything between 1 acre and 100 acres.

Wind Energy 4.44. One of the key factors determining the acceptability or otherwise of wind turbines is their potential impact on the local landscape – this is due to their height and the movement they introduce into the landscape (i.e. rotating blades). The Renewable Energy Capacity Study found that the landscapes in Hinckley and Bosworth have a moderate/moderate high sensitivity to large scale turbines. The Neighbourhood Area is particularly sensitive to wind turbines because its distinctive landform allows for great inter-visibility with the surrounding countryside. The Area is also part of the Charnwood Forest Regional Park and National Forest. In the past planning applications for wind turbines at Little Markfield Farm (Ref: 14/01258/FUL) and Stanton Lane Farm (Ref: 12/00399/FUL and 12/00091/FUL) have either been refused or withdrawn.