THE first step has been taken by North Ayrshire Council as they look to create a £6.7million solar farm.

Plans to build the solar photovoltaic (PV) farm at the former Nethermains landfill site in Irvine were given the green light by the council's then cabinet back in January of 2021.

The development area for the solar PV farm is approximately 24.33 hectares, roughly the size of over 43 football pitches, and is situated northwest of Irvine between the A78, A737, B779 and Ravenspark Golf Course

The proposed council owned solar farm would provide 7,681MWh p/a - which is approximately 34 per cent of the council’s current energy requirements.

The total net income from the Irvine solar PV farm over a 20-year period is estimated as £12.8m and will be reinvested in the region.

Until this time, the council had only agreed that they would pursue the idea - and no formal applications had yet been submitted.

However, earlier this month, an application to seek an opinon for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)  screening at the site was launched with the council's planning committee - meaning work to physically build the solar farm may not be far off.

This screening would only be required to determine whether the development falls within the EIA regulations and if so whether the proposed development is likely to have significant effects on the environment.

The application states the belief that an EIA screening is not required as "few impacts are anticipated to arise" - and this opinion has been agreed by the planning committee.

Documents supporting this application provide further details on the proposed solar farm.

They say: "The objective of the development is to utilise an area of land that has been largely sterilised by its former use as a municipal waste landfill, for the purpose of generating low carbon electricity, which can be used locally and efficiently.

"The works proposed include site preparations, installation of solar panels on metal frameworks, installation of cables, inverters, transformers and ancillary electrical equipment as well as landscaping and site security measures.

"The solar panels would be mounted on steel or aluminium frames to create groups of up to 66 panels per frame or 'table', with a total of up to 20,000 solar panels and 305 frames.

"The lowest part of the modules would be located between 0.75 and 1.5m above ground. The highest part of the modules would be on average 4m above ground, with slight variations caused by undulations in the ground."

The installation of this solar farm, which is expected to begin as early as this year, would take around 10-12 weeks. It would then be expected to have a useful life expectancy of 25 years.

The application adds that waste from the site would be limited to the construction period, and once the panels had been installed the site itself would not produce any waste products.

The application can be viewed in full via the council's online planning portal, searching for reference 22/00985/EIA.