Aldenham Estate owner on why she wants to see solar farm on her land

But the landowner behind plans for a sprawling new solar farm on Hertsmere’s greenbelt believes the contentious proposals can benefit a much wider audience.

A plan for a solar farm on the Aldenham Estate, stretching between Elstree and Radlett, has amassed 1,437 objections making it the most objected scheme ever to be presented to Hertsmere Borough Council.

Campaigners are concerned about the size of the scheme and the "lasting damage" they claim it would have on the landscape. The solar panels would sweep across 20 fields with a fence line of 210 acres – the size of 105 football pitches.

Campaigners in Radlett. Credit: Lynn Margolis

But for Jessica Allen-Back, whose family owns the Aldenham Estate, she believes the solar farm will have a positive impact on the environment which she says she feels "very passionately about".

She told the Observer: "I’m looking at a world in which we’re in a climate emergency. We’re facing an environmental impact we’ve never seen before. I’ve got a small child and I’m thinking about their future.

"Really our only way out of it is to cut our carbon emissions. Everyone needs power to live their lives...I don’t understand how people think power is going to come.

"I have to make the best decisions I can for that bit of land. It (the environment) is something I feel very passionately about."

The central fields in the grey-like colour is where the solar farm would be. Credit: Google Maps

Related: Campaigners step up effort to fight solar farm near Elstree

The solar farm plans have been officially submitted by a company called Enso Green Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Enso Green Holdings Ltd.

Enso says the proposed solar farm and battery storage facility would have the capacity to provide electricity for around 15,600 family homes, although they would not necessarily be in Hertsmere.

Mrs Allen-Back continued: "Enso are not the first developer to come to us...we’ve had a lot of these approaches. Enso I liked because they are interested in the wider benefits of a scheme like biodiversity and wildlife habitats."

It has been said new planting and ecological connectivity on the proposed site would achieve a 40 per cent net gain for biodiversity. Mrs Allen-Back says she has been working with Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust and said the organisation is "hugely enthusiastic" about Enso's biodiversity plans.

This substation circled is the key reason why the Aldenham Estate has been eyed up

What makes the Aldenham Estate so appealing to companies like Enso is its proximity to the Hilfield Lane substation - one of the largest on the National Grid system.

If the solar farm is constructed, a report on the council's planning portal states it will provide a "reliable source of urgently needed" low carbon and renewable energy via the substation.

Related: What 6 key consultees think about proposal for solar farm near Elstree

Part of the Aldenham Estate

The plans state the solar farm would be in place for a period of 35 years, with an option to extend for two separate five year periods leading to a maximum life span of 45 years. After that, Mrs Allen-Back says Enso's development would be dismantled.

Mrs Allen-Back said: "Permission for the solar farm would not change the status of the land from greenfield to brownfield. At the end of the 45 years these fields will be exactly how they are now apart from increases in wildlife and biodiversity.

"One of the reasons for this is because the poles holding the panels are so thin that less than five per cent of the ground is actually impacted."

Generic image of a solar farm

She added: "On the Aldenham Estate we know that our farmland is low quality and our agricultural business is not important to the food chain. For me, the solar farm presents an opportunity to get that land back into a healthy state.

"We believe that we need to look at the impact this farming has on the environment and ask whether it is more appropriate to keep producing unnecessary food crops or whether it is time to start harvesting the clean energy that our population so desperately needs.

"At the end of this we are hoping technology will change and there will be other ways of doing things. But we’ll have created a space for wildlife that we’ll hope we will be really proud of.

"We’ve looked after these fields for a long time and we hope to continue to do that in the future."

The solar farm proposal will be considered by Hertsmere Borough Council. A decision date has yet to be confirmed.