Barbara Chillman writes from Ramsden in Oxfordshire to say that opposing solar farms need not be nimbyism (Letters, 1 September). She could have cited a nearby existing solar farm, Southill Solar. It is in an area of outstanding natural beauty and won a Landscape Institute award for its design.
Southill Solar is a 4.5 megawatt solar farm operated by Southill Community Energy (SCE) for Charlbury and the surrounding villages. SCE is a community benefit society that pays its 400 members interest of 5% a year from its surpluses, as well as disbursing grants to the community for projects such as improving the energy and carbon performance of community buildings, funding a sustainability initiative with a local school and buying a polytunnel for a local agriculture scheme supplying fruit and vegetables.
Half the field on which the solar farm is sited has been turned over to improving the soil and biodiversity, and we also have solar thermal beehives. Engaging the community with its energy production can add enormous value and make nimbyism irrelevant.
Liz Reason
Chair, Southill Community Energy
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