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Ambitious solar energy site could power 110,000 homes a year by 2020

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The company behind ambitious plans to build an 890-acre solar energy farm in Kent has said that the project could potentially power some 110,000 households a year by 2020.

Cleve Hill Solar Park – a new company formed by prominent market players Hive Energy and Wirsol Energy – has earmarked a site on the North Kent coast for what it describes as the UK’s largest solar energy farm.

Proposals suggest that the £400 million project, which would span 890-acres of pure solar panels, would dwarf the UK’s largest existing solar farms, and be set up entirely without subsidies.

The Cleve Hill site, which is planned for a location just outside of the Kent town of Haversham, would be the UK’s second subsidy-free solar farm.

Its creators believe that the “pioneering scheme” would be hugely successful due to falling technology costs and the sheer size and scale of its potential power output.

It is estimated that the Cleve Hill site could have a capacity of as much as 350 megawatts (MW), a report in The Guardian suggests.

This is in comparison with the 69MW capacity of the UK’s largest existing solar farm, which is located near Lyneham in Wiltshire.

Hugh Brennan, a spokesperson on behalf of Hive Energy said: “The Cleve Hill solar park is a pioneering scheme that aims to optimise the technological developments in solar energy.”

“Our ambition is to deliver the first non-subsidised renewables project of this scale, delivering low-cost, clean, homegrown energy to power UK households,” he said.

“We are still at the very early stages of developing our proposals, which is why we want to start talking now with local communities to understand their views and listen to their ideas.

“I would encourage anyone with an interest in our plans to come along to meet us at one of our upcoming consultation events to find out more.”

Further information about the proposals can be found on Cleve Hill’s website here.

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