Solar farm development
Archaeology for Solar Farm Development in Cambridgeshire
Solar schemes cover very large areas with comparatively shallow disturbance, which makes them one of the few development types where archaeological scope can genuinely be argued down.
- Main opportunity
- Arguing preservation in place across the array
- Real disturbance
- Cables, tracks, inverters, substation
- Evidence needed
- Element-by-element disturbance model
- Typical method
- Targeted work on intrusive elements
Why this scheme type carries the requirement it does
Pile-driven mounting, cable trenching, access tracks, inverter stations and substation compounds disturb ground very unevenly. Much of a solar site may see almost no disturbance at all, while cable runs and compound bases are locally intrusive.
The approach that keeps it proportionate
Model disturbance element by element rather than treating the whole lease area as impacted. A well-evidenced disturbance model is the basis for arguing that mitigation should follow the cable routes and compounds, with preservation in place across the array itself.
Questions
Common questions on this
Will we have to excavate the whole field?
Very often not. Where the design genuinely limits disturbance to cable routes, tracks and compounds, a proportionate scheme concentrates on those, provided the disturbance model is evidenced rather than asserted.
Project review
Archaeology on a solar farm development scheme?
Send the footprint, the depth of disturbance and the planning position. We will set out the requirement and the programme it implies.