THE GREAT SOLAR DEBATE

If developers have their way, miles of Oxfordshire farmland will soon be covered with solar panels. Many local people are opposed but how vital is this sustainable energy for our countryside? Andrew Griffiths investigates

-  Andrew Griffiths

When you come over that hill at Watlington, and you look over a whole swathe of lovely meadows and fields, you feel that you are coming home," says Laura Reineke. "It is a little piece of heaven." Reineke is referring to the rolling countryside to the west and north of Oxford, scattered with villages and farms and defined by the winding valleys of the rivers Glynne, Cherwell and Evenlode. But that picture of a rural idyll could change dramatically if plans for Europe's biggest solar farm are approved.

The proposed Botley West Solar Farm will cover farmland on the Blenheim Estate with ground-mounted solar panels - "a monoculture of glass and steel," according to one local resident. The scope of the proposal is massive.

The solar panels would cover 1,011 hectares of land - equivalent to about 1,200 football pitches. They would generate 840 MW enough electricity to power 330,000 homes.

The project is dividing opinion. Robert Courts, Conservative MP for Witney and West Oxfordshire, is against the proposal, referring to it disparagingly in the House of Commons as "Blenheim Power Station". In contrast, the CEO of Blenheim Estate Dominic Hare talks about "the positive role we could play in reversing climate change and helping to adapt to it" in the context of the "climate catastrophe" we're facing.

Reineke - communications manager for the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Oxfordshire - has another interpretation. "The people set to gain from Botley West are the Blenheim Estate, the developers and local government," she says. "It is all about money."

WHY DO WE NEED SOLAR?