Dean Moor Solar farm will be Cumbria's largest

A solar farm given the green light by government will be Cumbria’s largest, its developers have said.

Dean Moor Solar Farm will lie on 276.5 hectares (683 acres) of land between the villages of Gilgarran and Branthwaite.

The 150MV site was given a development consent order last week, which is required for nationally significant infrastructure projects.

Developers FVS Dean Moor Ltd said it was the largest such scheme to be given permission to be built in the county and its next steps included procurement and more detailed design work.

It said it could not confirm when construction would begin.

FVS Dean Moor, which is a joint venture between Leeds-based Firma Energy and German company ib vogt, said the farm was designed to export up to 150MW of electricity into the National Grid.

It said that was comparable to the amount of electricity used by 50,000 typical homes each year.

The largest solar farm currently operating in Cumbria is in Wigton which can generate up to 19MW of electricity, according to the government’s renewable energy planning database.