Welcome To Coleraine Solar Farm Consultation
This website has been created, following an initial public exhibition on 9th of August at Coleraine West Community Centre, to provide an opportunity to view details on the Coleraine solar farm project and provide feedback.
This renewable energy project is being proposed by Strategic Power Projects (SPP) Ltd and will seek to power circa 36,000 houses using clean energy and save circa 1,860,000 tonnes of CO2 over its 40 year lifetime. We would like to thank everyone who sent us their feedback so far, which we will use to help us develop our plans ahead of the next stage.
WHY COLERAINE SOLAR FARM IS NEEDED
Reaching net zero means fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas will need to be replaced by sources of clean, renewable electricity. The government believes that by 2050, 100% of Northern Irish electricity could be produced by renewables.
In the future, electricity will have a much larger role to play in our energy system. Not only will it be used to heat our homes, but it will play an important role across our whole economy, powering our future transport systems, buildings and industries. This means we need to produce a lot more electricity than we currently do.
All of this means we need to increase the amount of clean electricity we produce by increasing the sources of renewable energy. Having lots of sources of electricity in Northern Ireland will also help our energy system become more independent.
Solar will be an important part of the way we meet this need – it is affordable, reliable and can be built quickly compared to other renewable technologies. It is also low-impact and is a temporary development and the land can be used for both renewable energy production and agriculture. Solar panels last around 40 years and once they are removed, the land can be returned to its original agricultural use.
With the potential to generate around 70MW of electricity, Coleraine Solar Farm would make an important contribution to helping Northern Ireland build a cleaner, independent and affordable energy system and reach our net-zero target.