Renewable sites › Southern Counties Shooting Ground Phase 1
Southern Counties Shooting Ground Phase 1
Southern Counties Shooting Ground Phase 1 is an operational 9 MW solar farm in Dorset, generating since 6 January 2017. Planning permission was granted on 8 September 2015, 8 months after submission. Operator of record: British Solar Renewables / NextEenrgy Solar Fund (NESF).
Planning and build timeline
| Application submitted | 24 December 2014 |
| Permission granted | 8 September 2015 8 months after submission |
| Operational | 6 January 2017 16 months after consent |
Screening a site of your own?
Dorset approves 95% 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 Southern Counties Shooting Ground Phase 1’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.
- National Landscape (AONB) — Dorset
- Nutrient-neutrality catchment — Poole 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.
Dorset’s record on solar
Dorset has decided 97 solar farms and approved 95%, taking a median of 3.7 months. See every solar farm decision in Dorset →
Other built sites within 15 km
| Site | MW | Distance |
|---|---|---|
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 5 | 0.1 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 5 | 6 km |
Large Hydro · Operational | 10 | 7.9 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 6.7 | 7.9 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 35 | 10.1 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 5 | 12.4 km |
Anaerobic Digestion · Operational | 1.1 | 12.4 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 2.4 | 12.4 km |
How big is Southern Counties Shooting Ground Phase 1?
Southern Counties Shooting Ground Phase 1 has a recorded installed capacity of 9 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 Southern Counties Shooting Ground Phase 1?
REPD records the operator as British Solar Renewables / NextEenrgy Solar Fund (NESF). 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 Southern Counties Shooting Ground Phase 1 approved and built?
The application was submitted on 24 December 2014. Permission was granted on 8 September 2015, 8 months later. The site became operational on 6 January 2017, 16 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 5096.
Novarly Parcel · official public data, read properly · parcel.novarly.com
All sites · Screen your own site · Planning by council · Coal mining search by postcode