Scrapping of Jersey solar farm plans welcomed

A decision not to proceed with a solar farm in St Martin has been welcomed by campaigners.

Jersey Electricity wanted to build the 5.2-megawatt project on 20 acres (eight hectares) of Crown land, with panels designed to operate alongside crops and livestock.

However, it decided not to proceed, citing feedback from locals and conversations with the landowners.

Campaigner William Layzell said that land in Jersey was "precious" and should be "protected" from such developments. A spokesperson for Jersey Electricity said: "Ground-mounted solar remains a cost-effective way to diversify Jersey's electricity supply, strengthen the island's energy resilience and support environmental objectives."

In its decision to scrap the project at Belle Fontaine, Jersey Electricity said it remained "fully committed" to cleaner energy and would continue to look for sites where it could work in partnership with agriculture.

It also said it would consult the public in the early stages of any future developments to do with solar panels.

It is not the first site to face opposition from residents, and campaigner William Layzell described it as an "amazing reversal" to something he considered to be an "island-wide problem".

He said: "It's not site specific, it's not parish specific... The sites that Jersey Electricity are proposing to implement are across the island, so it affects all of us".

William said the push for solar farms on the island "doesn't seem worth it".

"We get 95% of our electricity currently through the cables from France, and that is very green renewable energy already.

"So, the proposal to sort of produce 5% of the island's electrical needs through solar ground-mounted panels, you know, ruining green fields and agricultural, prime agricultural land, really seems like a moot point."

He added he and other campaigners had concerns solar could make electricity "more expensive for islanders in the long run", and that the island's "natural beauty" was at stake.

Questioning the practicality of using agricultural fields for electricity generation, he argued that it "would end up with a reduction of good, productive land in the island, which we just feel is not acceptable".

"It's not the right way to be implementing renewable energy in this island," he said.

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