Solar farm in Balcombe ‘fracking village’ shelved due to Tory policies

The Guardian, Fiona Harvey , environment correspondent November 2015 15:30 GMT

Sussex village gives up plans for community-run project that would have enabled it to run largely on clean energy

A project to generate renewable energy in the village at the centre of the UK’s first fracking protests has become the latest casualty of the shake-up of the government’s green policies.

REPOWERBalcombe, a group of local residents who raised money to install green electricity generation, has cancelled its plans to set up a range of solar panels in the nearby area, citing a series of changes to government policy as the reason.

“It was an incredibly hard decision to come to, but the policy situation simply meant we were haemorrhaging investor confidence,” said Joe Nixon, on behalf of the group. “We’re still incredibly proud of the work we’ve done.”

Julian Fitzsimons, chair of REPOWERBalcombe, said: “Sadly the time constraints forced upon us by the legislative changes have made it impossible to proceed with the solar farm as a community-owned project. We are bitterly disappointed that it has come to this, especially after so much hard work has gone into it.”

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