Green Belt Solar Farm for Oxfordshire Comes Forward
A full planning application for a solar farm on almost 57 acres of farmland in the Oxfordshire Green Belt was due before South Oxfordshire District Council's planning committee. Renewable Energy Solutions (RES) is promoting the scheme, with Pegasus Group as agent, on land 550 metres north of Nuneham Courtenay.
Access would be taken from the A4074 to the east. The panels would stand between 3 and 3.6 metres high, surrounded by a 2.4-metre deer fence, and the site would include transformers, circuit breakers, an SSE control building, a solar plant control building, 11 inverter substations, five watercourse crossings and pole-mounted CCTV.
Permission is sought for 40 years only, after which the equipment would be removed; decommissioning is expected to take about six months.
The councils' joint drainage team has objected on flood risk grounds. Although the site is in Flood Zone 1, the lowest risk category, the River Thames lies about 400 metres to the west, river flooding was recorded at the western edge of the site two years ago, and parts of the land are affected by surface water flooding.
Officers nonetheless recommended a temporary 40-year consent subject to conditions. The committee report finds the scheme would benefit the economy and concludes that its contribution to renewable energy and the move to net zero amounts to very special circumstances that outweigh the harm to the openness and appearance of the Green Belt.
Source: UK Property Forums, original article (3 August 2026)
