ELECTRICITY for more than 12,000 homes could be generated by a planned new solar farm in Spetisbury.

Voltalia has applied to Dorset Council for permission to install solar panels across a 71-hectare site between the village and Lower Almer Farm.

It estimates that should the “benign” scheme be approved, it would produce enough power for about 12,120 homes each year.

Revised several times since first mooted more than a year ago, the scheme seeks permission to install panels across five fields.

The firm estimates that the operation will produce 40 megawatts of energy at its peak and plans also include battery storage for 10 megawatts.

In a statement submitted with its application, it says: “It is considered that due to the benign appearance of the scheme, together with its edge-of-settlement location, that the development proposals will not have an unacceptable adverse effect on the visual amenity of Spetisbury nor the wider countryside.

“The site has been carefully selected and is afforded natural screening which, coupled with the low height of the solar panels, results in only limited, distant views of the site being possible.”

The statement adds that the site is “well located” for receiving sunlight and that it is in close proximity to a connection to the electricity grid.

Further schemes are being proposed near Yeovil and Sherborne with the company aiming to have a total production of at least 100 megawatts in Dorset.

It said the Spetisbury scheme, if approved, would take about six months to construct with more than 600 lorry deliveries expected over that period, the equivalent of about four a day.

Spetisbury Parish Council has been consulted several times on its plans for the site and a website for the solar farm has been launched.

Planning officers at Dorset Council will consider the application in the coming weeks with a deadline for public comments set for August 6.