A second solar farm is proposed on farmland a few miles north west of York.

Global renewables company Ampyr Solar Europe has approached City of York Council about whether it needs to submit an Environmental Impact Assessment as part of any future planning application concerning its proposals.

The company seeks to develop a solar farm on 51ha or farmland on two sites, both north and south of Lords Lane, near Nether Poppleton.

The move follows a similar ‘screening opinion’ being sought by Solar2 Ltd who have plans for a 70ha solar farm between Rufforth and Hessay. It requested its own ‘screening opinion’ from the council in August.

Ampyr Solar Europe seeks to develop a 22ha site north of Lords Lane and a 29ha site south of Lords Lane.

The solar panels would have an export capacity of 32.6M, enough to power 7,000 homes, with battery storage having a capacity of 10MW.

If approved, there would also be related underground cable routing, substation, CCTV cameras, and ancillary equipment, with access onto Lords Lane.

The development would be connected to the National Grid network via a substation at Nether Poppleton, about 2.6km from the southeastern boundary of the site

The application to City of York Council said: “The Site is located in a region of farmed lowland with the settlement of Poppleton 600 m to the east of the Site and Overton approximately 700 m northeast of the Site. The low-lying solar development would sit within the gently rolling landform, broken up by existing lines of mature trees, blocks of woodland and established hedgerows.”

The development would also be ‘temporary’ with an ‘operational period of 40 years.’

The panels would be mounted on metal frames, so excavation would not be needed.

Areas of new hardstanding would be limited to the substation and related equipment taking up a third or 16.5ha of the site, with sheep able to feed between the panels.

Where possible, mitigation measures would be “embedded into” the overall design strategy rather than “added on” to the proposals. There would be habitat creation, tree planting and wildflower meadow, the application also said.

The site would return to full agricultural use when the development was decommissioned after its 40 year use period.

The application concluded that overall significant effects were ‘not likely’ as a result of the proposed development so an Environmental Impact Assessment was not needed.

“All the factors would ensure any landscape effects would be very localised, such that no significant effects would be anticipated. The Site is not ecologically sensitive, and the Proposed Development has the potential to provide beneficial effects to ecology in the short to medium term.”

City of York Council has yet to determine this request, along with that for the Solar2 Ltd scheme between Rufforth and Hessay.