Local people and volunteers across Northamptonshire villages, together with local organisations and MPs, are fighting an enormous solar farm: at just under 3,000 acres it will be the size of Heathrow. It will severely impact many communities, rural landscapes, protected habitats and heritage areas.  A massive battery storage plant (BESS), with inherent dangers of fire and subsequent pollutants, will be among the biggest BESS in UK. 

STOP Green Hill Solar does not object to solar power, but wants it in the right place: the rooftops of Northants and brownfield sites, not next to residential communities and sensitive rural, ecological and heritage areas. 

Green Hill Solar is so big it is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, like HS2, and will be decided by government, not local planners. Farmers and land tenants have already been forced to lose land; other compulsory land access and acquisition will affect many others.     

Effectively fighting these plans requires lawyers and specialists, who are advising on the effects of this massive solar industrialisation on communities, heritage, birds, wildlife, the waterways, and fire risks and pollutants from BESS. 

Fighting Green Hill Solar demands substantial funds to cover these costs. 

In place for a 'temporary' 60 years, Green Hill Solar will be sited entirely on productive agricultural land (66.6% on BMV fields), and no longer producing food. It will surround some villages and spoil many others, with a further 20km of underground cable routes affecting more residents, communities, road and rural users. The massive BESS facility adjacent to protected environmental sites in the Nene Valley and flood plains, could have disastrous consequences for SSSi, RAMSAR and SPA habitats if contaminated run-off enters the water course. Two years of construction, six days a week, with additional vehicles, outsize HGV traffic and machinery and up to 800 workers a day will change the areas we live in, bringing chaos and further destroying local roads.  

Green Hill Solar, its two million solar panels, new sub stations, cable routes and massive BESS facility will change the area for ever. 

Please help stop Green Hill Solar's devastation and industrialisation of rural Northants. Stop the loss of thousands of acres food-producing land, wildlife habitats, heritage village areas and rural landscapes.  This project does NOT provide cheaper electricity, does NOT provide local benefits: the UK already has more solar projects in the planning pipeline than needed. 

Developer confirms once built, Green Hill Solar will be sold to investors in UK or overseas. 

STOP Green Hill Solar needs your financial support, NOW. We cannot do it alone without legal and specialist advice and representatives. 

Please contribute and share this page, we have only ONE MONTH.

What's next? A Development Consent Order application is expected by the developers in May 2025. The Examination period will start in the following weeks. STOP Green Hill Solar has a top Barrister standing by and experts on hand, but we must fund them. 

How much do we need? Our initial target is £3,000 in four weeks for legal fees, but it will not be enough for the fight! An estimated £30,000-£50,000 will be eventually needed.

ANY contribution you can afford will be used to fight this travesty. 

Thank you in advance.

Links

https://www.stopgreenhillsolar.co.uk/about/

https://www.cpre.org.uk/news/rooftops-can-provide-over-half-our-solar-energy-targets-report-shows/