Solar Energy Farms

[PeterNatt]

Does anyone have any experience of riding around or through a Solar Energy Farm?
An adjoining Landowner to me intends to put over about 150 acres of their land to become a Solar Energy Farm.
We have our Cross Country Course and hacking paths diretly adjacent to it and I am concerned about this because the local Pony Club and Horse Riders use our fields.
Many thanks in anticipation of your responses.

 

[AmyMay]

What issues are you anticipating???

 

[teapot]

I've only ever walked through and bar a very slight hum not sure many issues would arise. Sheep tend to be used to graze the land they're on would be the only thing to consider perhaps.

 

[meleeka]

There’s one near me. It’s not really what they promised (the designs had sheep grazing under and made it look very pretty!), but it’s not been an issue. It’s fenced off in grids with about 14ft between each bit, laid with grass, so fine to ride on, just a little boring. The fences are 8ft high, covered steel mesh type.

 

[Wishfilly]

I've recently moved yards to one where there's a solar farm nearby- we ride on tracks directly past it to access some off road hacking. There's one bit (sub station?) which makes slight noise but it doesn't seem to bother any of the horses. They definitely don't notice the solar panels in any way. My pony is the sort to spook at silly things, but he's not bothered by them (or by wind turbines). We ride quite close to it (there's plenty of room though), and the horses genuinely don't seem to notice.

They do have sheep grazing around them sometimes.

I'd argue they're probably better as a "neighbour" than the fields on the other side which are used for growing crops. When those were being harvested, we had lots of very large tractors and trailers driving nearby and using a track we use to access most of our off road hacking. I'm happy to accept that loss of hacking for one week because obviously we need to farm things in order to eat, but it's more of an inconvenience than the solar panels!

I also consider producing renewable energy important, and I do think solar panels are one of the least offensive ways of doing this.

ETA: The fences are very high and secure, there would be no danger of a loose horse getting into the panels and having an accident in that way.

 

[ihatework]

We have a smallish area ( maybe a couple of acres) of solar panels fenced in. Hack right alongside with absolutely no issue. None of the horses even really register they are there

 

[Clodagh]

I wish they wouldn’t call them farms.
But apart from that I can see no problems.

 

[PurBee]

The panels themselves dont make a noise - just the charger unit station would hum as it’s being charged by the panels - if thats wired nearby (likely to be). Its a low hum though, like a bees nest if you get very close to it.

The consideration of riding nearby during fairly heavy rainfall will likely be noisy, as the panels reverberate the rain sound, like a tin roof, but that would be more of a concern for young/green horses Riding close to them, than for comps held in nearby fields.

I have no problem with solar ‘farms’ for their function, but i do have issue with them using prime agri-horticultural land to install them on. Especially in the UK where prime quality land isnt exactly copious, unlike the USA and other larger countries.
Yet of course to position them on subquality lands - are areas where there is more cloud/rain and far less sunshine, hence sub-quality soil status, so the panel investment for return would be less profitable than prime-soil lands.

 

[Britestar]

I ride through one, and right under the wind turbines that are on it too.
Horses don't bat an eye at them, or the whoosing noise from the turbine. Occasionally spook at shadows cast by the blades, but really couldn't care less.

 

[tda]

There is a company trying to get planning for one fairly local to us, there are existing bridlepath in that area so I'm assuming they will remain. The village it's next to are violently opposed, they have actually got the BHS on side with objections

 

[Gloi]

We only have small areas of panels around but I can't see any problems about them.

 

[SilverLinings]

I kept a horse on a yard near to one a few years ago and none of the horses seemed to be bothered about riding close to them. IMO they are an eyesore, but we need to generate more renewable energy so they are necessary (until something better comes along). They are much less of an eyesore than a landfill site or industrial estate so not the worst thing to get PP. The biggest bonus of land being used that way is that once the panels have been installed the sites receive very little traffic, so less of a pain for locals than many other uses.

I actually saw more problems on a different yard that had a couple of the traditional large metal electricity pylons in the grazing fields; the buzzing was annoying in calm weather, but when it was windy the loud, high-pitched humming seemed to wind nearly all of the horses up until the wind dropped again. It was bad enough for a few horses that they couldn't be turned out in the pylon fields.

 

[TheMule]

I hack past one, zero problems

 

[ElleSkywalkingintheair]

I've hacked a few different horses with different levels of spookiness past both ground mounted solar and wind turbines. None have had any reaction to either.

 

[humblepie]

Had one built by then yard about ten years ago. The power unit switching on is a bit of a surprise if right by it as not on all the time. Not enough to worry about. The guard dog in the fog jumping against the fence was a bit if an eek moment but they moved security once it was commissioned.

 

[PeterNatt]

Many thanks for your responses.

 

[Wishfilly]

There is a company trying to get planning for one fairly local to us, there are existing bridlepath in that area so I'm assuming they will remain. The village it's next to are violently opposed, they have actually got the BHS on side with objections

I really think that's a poor look for the BHS, unless they are trying to get rid of the bridlepath too.

 

[tda]

I really think that's a poor look for the BHS, unless they are trying to get rid of the bridlepath too.

I'll try and find out why they have been approached