We are calling on all our supporters to sign and share an online petition against what would be one of Europe’s largest solar arrays on more than 4 square miles of farmland near Holsworthy.
And we’re urging everyone to throw their weight behind our campaign to fend off the massive development around Holsworthy Beacon. There’s no need to cover another 2,700 acres of Devon farmland in solar panels, because the number of renewable projects queuing for connection to the grid is already more than three times the government’s Clean Power target for 2030.
Data from the National Energy System Operator (NESO) shows renewable projects totalling 760GW awaiting grid connection, far above the government’s 2030 renewables target of 150-225GW, rendering the proposed Devon megasolar farm surplus to requirements and unsustainable.
At a packed meeting in Holsworthy attended by more than 300 residents, Devon CPRE chairman Steve Crowther outlined the scale of the threat if the scheme, currently in the pre-application phase, progresses. He described the huge proposal as part of a ‘market bubble’ driven by international investors, and urged objectors to start building opposition now by signing our charity’s nationwide online petition, sharing it widely with their contacts, and joining CPRE to build the charity’s voice in Westminster. Devon CPRE aims to gather a million signatures against the proposed development by Galileo Empower, a company incorporated in Switzerland as part of the huge conglomerate Galileo Green Energy Gmbh. Donations to our fighting fund have already started rolling in, and almost two thousand people have already signed the petition at devoncpre.org.uk in a fortnight, from all around the UK.
Steve Crowther said, “The packed meeting and the number who have already signed show the beginnings of an amazing movement. We know that as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project the Beacon Solar scheme is not going to be decided by the community through the district council, but by the Secretary of State. The one thing that moves Secretaries of State is public opinion – they don’t like very, very large numbers of voters becoming annoyed with them.”
He added, “The developer behind Beacon Solar is part of a huge multinational that identifies, acquires and carries out early-stage development of renewable projects across Europe before selling them on. They are not focused on producing power for the people of Devon, but on making the most of a booming market. This is about the exploitation of the countryside, making the local environment poorer and overseas investors richer.”
The meeting at Holsworthy Memorial Hall was held on Halloween, an appropriate choice for a proposal that chills many local people to the core. They are worried about the massive impacts it would have on the landscape and character of the countryside, the loss of land capable of producing more than £1m worth of food each year, the effect on the vital tourism industry, threatened compulsory purchase of land, and how the solar panels will be disposed of when the site is decommissioned.
See our film of the meeting here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDoHi_8UEhU
Torridge and Tavistock MP Sir Geoffrey Cox, a King’s Counsel, pledged his support for Devon CPRE’s ‘Say No to Beacon Solar’ campaign and promised to put together a specialist legal team to fight the scheme. Sir Geoffrey says he is “implacably opposed” to swathes of farmland being covered in solar panels at a time when the nation’s food security needs bolstering. He told the crowd, “At a time of increasing global insecurity we will only be protected if we gear up our capacity to grow food – something we do best in this part of the world.” He added that if the developers thought they had chosen some “out of the way place” where the community would not fight an “alien intrusion on Devon land” they had made a bad misjudgement..
Local resident Steve Boulton, who set up the residents’ campaign group Stop Beacon Solar, voiced his concerns about the plans. The meeting also heard from CPRE national campaigns lead Jackie Copley who is coordinating the charity’s response to a rash of such schemes appearing around the country, as developers ‘dash for cash’. CPRE supports a massive expansion of rooftop solar which it says could more than meet the government’s net zero 2050 solar targets without impacting the countryside – but will not happen if the government continues allowing investors to use greenfield sites instead.
In addition to an estimated 1.8 million solar panels, ringed by security fencing and CCTV, if the scheme goes ahead, it would also include a new substation and a very large Battery Energy Storage System or BESS. The application is due to be submitted in 2027.
Supporters can sign and share the petition at www.devoncpre.org.uk
