Building of Community-Centric Forest Gate Solar Farm to Begin in September 2025

Planning consent was granted by the Wiltshire Council for the Forest Gate solar farm, a 49.9MW solar and battery storage project developed by Eden Renewables, in March 2023. Building the solar farm is expected to start from September 2025 and to take 6 to 9 months to complete. 

The development of the Forest Gate Solar farm is an excellent example of a successful collaboration between commercial developers and local communities. We live in an age when the demand for land for food production, energy generation, biodiversity and carbon reduction is continually growing.

The Forest Gate solar farm has been developed for multi-functional use and combines all these objectives. It will be able to generate electricity equivalent to the consumption of approximately 13,300 homes and will save about 19,000 tonnes of CO2 each year. There will be a biodiversity net gain of 18% for habitat units and 16% for hedgerows. Further to this a new buffer will be created, 25 to 30m wide made up of a mix of mature and fast-growing trees and hedgerow planting along the boundary with the A4. This will provide effective and immediate screening, boost diversity as well as absorb carbon. There are also plans for diverse grassland and wildflower areas using native species. Any moderate quality land will continue in agricultural use for grazing sheep. 

Wiltshire solar farm community energy

Temporary use of the land has been granted for 40 years after which it will return to its original use. The site is ideal as it is neither designated as part of the green belt or as an area of outstanding beauty. A grid connection point has been identified at Chippenham where capacity has been secured. 

The Eden Renewables team has led the industry since 2010. Their renewable energy and storage projects have had a positive impact on the local environment and the communities that host them. The UK team is currently working on several utility-scale onshore wind, solar and storage projects; commercial and industrial projects such as solar rooftops, EV charging and solar carports; and standalone battery storage. Eden Renewables is committed to an ethical, transparent, environmentally sustainable supply chain. 

The Forest Gate solar farm brings with it many benefits both from a local standpoint and for the wider community. Of significant importance to many people in these times of high energy bills, low-cost power generation helps to bring down the cost of electricity for everyone. Other benefits include community and educational benefit funds totalling £800,000 which will be available for the lifetime of the project at a rate of £20,000 per year, index linked. The fund will be managed by an independent panel including the local parish council; A new permissive footpath will be created around the perimeter of the site to provide a circular and a safer walking route along the A4; The shared ownership/community investment opportunity is expected to generate additional community funds of over £2m for the lifetime of the project. 

Once construction is completed in 2026, up to 20% of the solar farm will be owned by the local community which will greatly increase the financial benefits for the local economy. 

With the UK speeding up its transition to a zero-carbon energy system, these collaborations are very welcome as they help with building a sustainable, socially supported renewable infrastructure. The Forest Gate solar farm project illustrates how shared ownership can improve community support and increase local benefits while creating a replicable model for future renewable energy developments. 

In recent years there has been a growing interest in local ownership of renewable energy. From the start of the project Eden Renewables understood the importance of actively including the local community in the development of the Forest Gate site. Eden renewables collaborated closely with Zero Chippenham, a long-standing local climate action group with lots of experience and exciting ambitions.

Zero Chippenham had already used a community solar panel discount scheme to facilitate the installation of over fifty rooftop solar systems; However, they also had greater ambitions which extended to larger scale projects that could bring significant environmental and financial benefits to the wider North Wiltshire community. The Forest Gate site presented an ideal opportunity. They established Zero North Wiltshire, a Community Benefit Society, and invited Bath and West Community Energy, one of the UK’s leading community energy organisations, to join them as a partner and mentor. Zero North Wiltshire and Bath and West Community Energy will jointly own the community share, up to 20% of the Forest Gate solar farm, as a split, electrically separate site. This arrangement will mean that financial benefits are kept within the area and that the local community will be able to further influence the additional environmental benefits.

Funds will be raised through a mixture of senior debt, community shares and community bonds. Investors will receive a fair market return, and the partnership is expected to generate an estimated £5 million over the project’s 40-year lifetime from a 10MW community share. Zero North Wiltshire and Bath and West Community Energy will put the surplus revenues to good use after covering financing and operating costs, by supporting a range of environmental initiatives. These will include tackling fuel poverty, further carbon pollution reduction, tree planting schemes, a zero-waste initiative and air quality monitoring.

Eden Renewables’ interest in community ownership of renewables is not new. The company’s leadership team previously delivered a 7.5MW community-owned solar farm in South Devon in 2019 and a 5MW/5MW community-commercial split project in Sussex in 2015. Recognising how beneficial it can be for commercial solar developers to create successful partnerships with community groups, Eden Renewables have been keen to extend their projects to larger sites when feasible. Partnering with community groups can lead to more sustainable and socially responsible solar projects.

Eden Renewables are also progressing shared community ownership at another North Wiltshire solar farm, Red Barn, which will be built soon after Forest Gate, and are working with community groups in the Forest of Dean and Gloucestershire to deliver shared ownership on a new project, Lightwood Solar Farm, which has just been submitted into planning. They are also looking for community partners at a new project in planning in Wiltshire, Blackthorn Solar Farm.

Eden Renewables believes that shared ownership is a great way of building positive long-term relationships with the community. If you involve community groups in the development process it can help with local acceptance and support for solar projects. Furthermore, shared ownership gives local economies an important boost by ensuring a greater percentage of revenues from a project are retained and reinvested in the local area to help tackle climate change and build a strong community.

As with all their solar projects, Eden Renewables designed Forest Gate solar farm with land-sharing principles in mind. They integrated continued agricultural use with habitat enhancement. One of the key reasons that Zero North Wiltshire were keen to work with them was their leadership in prioritising biodiversity and nature recovery. 

As Zero North Wiltshire and Bath and West Community Energy will be investing in Forest Gate after construction is complete, there has been plenty of time for Eden renewables to work with these community groups to discuss deal terms and structure, financial details, technical configuration and delivery programme. This ensures that the community groups are comfortable with the risks and returns of the project. Regular meetings are also held to make sure everyone is up to date on the planned construction programme and grid connection dates. 

The community groups are now planning their local fund-raising. Successful community investment and ownership of renewable energy projects goes back over a decade, with over £225 million invested in community energy from 2017- 2023. Bath and West Community Energy alone has raised over £23 million since it was established in 2010.

An important step has now been taken towards beginning work on the Forest Gate solar project. An underground cable connecting Forest Gate solar farm to a power supply has been approved. This 2.6-mile (4.3km) cable links the solar farm to the Chippenham substation. Eden Renewables, which put forward the application, said most of the cable route will follow existing infrastructure 

The Forest Gate solar farm is not only a renewable energy project but also a working model for how commercial developers and communities can work together to create value. By bringing together the development experience of Eden renewables with the local expertise of groups like Zero Chippenham/ Zero North Wiltshire and Bath and West Community Energy, both clean energy generation and long-term local engagement can be ensured. 

The community ownership structure demonstrated by the Forest Gate solar project means that residents can feel fully involved in the green transition. Forest Gate offers a compelling blueprint for how solar farms can deliver for climate, nature, and people.