Renewable sites › Bidwell Solar Farm
Bidwell Solar Farm
Bidwell Solar Farm is an operational 5 MW solar farm in South Hams, generating since 1 April 2015. Planning permission was granted on 1 July 2013, 2 months after submission. Operator of record: Wessex Solar Energy.
Planning and build timeline
| Application submitted | 1 May 2013 |
| Permission granted | 1 July 2013 2 months after submission |
| Operational | 1 April 2015 21 months after consent |
Screening a site of your own?
South Hams approves 93% of solar farms. Redline puts that number, and everything else the record holds, against your own boundary: the authority’s actual approval rate and decision times, every designation inside the red line, agricultural grade, 1 m LIDAR earthworks, how contested the grid is, and yield with a P90 — before you spend on a consultant.
Arrives prefilled with Bidwell Solar Farm’s recorded coordinate — swap in your own postcode or coordinates.
What this site sits on
The recorded coordinate falls on land surveyed as Grade 3 agricultural land. The published survey does not split Grade 3 into 3a and 3b, so this alone does not settle whether the land counts as best and most versatile.
REPD gives one representative coordinate per scheme, not the site boundary, so this describes the point on record rather than the whole site — a large site can straddle a designation edge. Boundaries come from planning.data.gov.uk, which publishes for England only.
South Hams’s record on solar
South Hams has decided 27 solar farms and approved 93%, taking a median of 3.3 months. See every solar farm decision in South Hams →
Other built sites within 15 km
| Site | MW | Distance |
|---|---|---|
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 6.4 | 3 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 5.2 | 4.2 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 6.3 | 5.8 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 8 | 6.4 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 6.5 | 7.4 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 4.9 | 8.9 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 12 | 10.2 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 3 | 10.5 km |
How big is Bidwell Solar Farm?
Bidwell Solar Farm has a recorded installed capacity of 5 MW. That figure is the capacity registered in REPD, which is the scheme as consented — the metered output of a site can differ.
Who operates Bidwell Solar Farm?
REPD records the operator as Wessex Solar Energy. Ownership of built renewable assets changes hands regularly and REPD is published quarterly, so treat this as the operator of record rather than confirmation of who owns it today.
When was Bidwell Solar Farm approved and built?
The application was submitted on 1 May 2013. Permission was granted on 1 July 2013, 2 months later. The site became operational on 1 April 2015, 21 months after consent.
Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD), Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Open Government Licence v3.0, plus planning designation boundaries from planning.data.gov.uk (England only). REPD is published quarterly and covers schemes of roughly 150 kW and above. Capacity is the installed capacity on record, not metered generation. Operator is the operator of record at the last extract, not confirmation of present ownership. Reference 1964.
Novarly Parcel · official public data, read properly · parcel.novarly.com
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