Brewery makes sustainability bid with field of solar panels

A Herefordshire brewery says installing solar panels on a neighbouring field will make it more environmentally and financially sustainable.

Wye Valley Brewery is seeking full planning permission (application 260692) for the array of 540 solar panels, with a capacity of around 0.183MW, on two acres of farmland just north of its base in the village of Stoke Lacy between Bromyard and Hereford.

It forms part of the brewery’s “wider decarbonisation strategy for long-term operational sustainability through on-site renewable electricity generation”, which “supports the long-term viability of the brewery”, a statement with its application says.

With no “prominent vertical infrastructure” alongside them, the panels themselves would be up to 1.8 metres in height, “with grazing possible beneath and between panel rows”.

“The development is reversible and all equipment can be removed at the end of its operational life, with the land returned to agricultural use,” the statement adds.

Extra hedgerows and grassland would be created around it, leading to an overall gain in habitat.

The “environmental, economic and climate change benefits” of the proposal tie up with local and national planning policy, the application maintains.

Comments on it can be made until May 8, with a decision on it due by the end of the month.