Renewable sites › Forest Farm
Forest Farm
Forest Farm is an operational 3 MW solar farm in Winchester, generating since 1 March 2017. Planning permission was granted on 11 December 2015, 10 months after submission. Operator of record: NESF (formerly Earthworm/Waltham Solar).
Planning and build timeline
| Application submitted | 4 February 2015 |
| Permission granted | 11 December 2015 10 months after submission |
| Operational | 1 March 2017 15 months after consent |
Screening a site of your own?
Winchester approves 100% 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 Forest 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 4 agricultural land.
- Nutrient-neutrality catchment — Solent: Includes Chichester and Langstone Harbours SPA/Ramsar, Solent and Southampton Water SPA/Ramsar, Solent Maritime SAC, Portsmouth Harbour SPA/Ramsar
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.
Winchester’s record on solar
Winchester has decided 24 solar farms and approved 100%, taking a median of 2.9 months. See every solar farm decision in Winchester →
Other built sites within 15 km
| Site | MW | Distance |
|---|---|---|
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 12 | 0.4 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 5.8 | 3.5 km |
Landfill Gas · Operational | 1.5 | 6 km |
Battery · Under Construction | 49 | 6.7 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 6.3 | 7.4 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Under Construction | 1.04 | 8.6 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 48 | 10.7 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 12 | 10.9 km |
How big is Forest Farm?
Forest Farm has a recorded installed capacity of 3 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 Forest Farm?
REPD records the operator as NESF (formerly Earthworm/Waltham Solar). 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 Forest Farm approved and built?
The application was submitted on 4 February 2015. Permission was granted on 11 December 2015, 10 months later. The site became operational on 1 March 2017, 15 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 5018.
Novarly Parcel · official public data, read properly · parcel.novarly.com
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