The UK government plans to triple the nation’s solar power capacity by 2030. Matthew Short, from Wiltshire Climate Alliance, said that in that context the amount of UK solar capacity provided by Wiltshire needed to increased.
“I think we have about 7% [of the UK output] currently in Wiltshire, so yes it’s true we do have a lot of solar in Wiltshire,” Short said.
But he added that if that was “scaled that up proportionally” then Wiltshire would need to contribute another 1.9 gigawatts “which would be two or three Lime Downs”.
“So if you look at where we are to where we need to get nationally and you say ‘well ok, this is a good location to do it’ then yes, we do need to scale up,” added Short.
The planning inspectorate has said all comments on the proposals need to be received by Friday 9 January.