The Project

Community benefits and Biodiversity Net Gain

As part of our proposals for Lime Down Solar Park, we will support surrounding communities and deliver benefits to the local environment.

Community benefits 

Island Green Power offers a community benefits package with the renewable energy schemes that it promotes.  

We believe those communities closest to the proposed development should benefit from it – with them also being best placed to recommend what they believe a ‘community benefit’ should be.  

We are committed to working with you to identify and define community benefits. As part of our initial Stage One consultation we therefore invited your suggestions for local schemes and projects we could support – potentially for both on-site and off-site initiatives. 

On-site environmental mitigation and enhancements will be inherent within the material design and development process for the solar park.

These include protection of existing ecological features such as woodland, hedgerows and ponds, and delivery of biodiversity net gain through additional planting to encourage more native wildlife increasing habitats and food sources for insects and birds, and maintaining existing wildlife corridors. Additional considerations could include the creation of opportunities for public access and recreation, and improving amenity resources in the area.  

Off-site, we are considering the possibility of supporting initiatives to make improvements to existing community amenities, such as sports facilities, children’s playground, and village halls, or provision of electric charging points or subsidised solar PV for domestic installation.  

We are keen to explore opportunities for existing footpaths to be enhanced with educational walk boards, wildflower meadow planting, and seating or bird watching areas, as well as the introduction of new paths across and around the site area. We encourage feedback from anyone who has ideas on this topic.  

Biodiversity net gain (BNG) 

A well-managed solar farm can be a nature reserve – helping boost and protect wildlife and extend biodiversity.

As the panels are set on posts with minimal disturbance to the ground, much of the land is available to support new plants and animal life.  

From November 2025, there will be a legal requirement for developers of NSIP projects to show their projects will boost biodiversity by a minimum 10 per cent. This means our plans need to ensure that local wildlife habitats are in a measurably better state than before. Lime Down Solar Park could boost local biodiversity through means such as establishing wildflower areas that provide habitats for pollinators and birds, promoting wetland habitats to reduce flood risk and support aquatic and avian life, and restoring hedgerows and native species.  

To design Lime Down Solar Park in a way that boosts and enhances local wildlife by delivering a net gain in biodiversity, specific examples of benefits we are looking at delivering are listed below:  

  • Sowing land between and under the arrays as grassland and meadow management with a mix of some areas being grazed

  • Filling gaps in existing hedgerows with additional native species to increase diversity 

  • Managing hedgerows to enable wildlife to benefit from them year-round. 

  • Maintaining appropriate vegetated buffers with native planting.  

  • Installing bird nest and bat boxes on trees to provide opportunities for a range of local species 

  • The creation of new woodland blocks and belts  

  • New tree planting where appropriate