United Kingdom, storm over the mega solar park in front of King Charles’ “refuge” –

Alessandra Zavatta

06 April 2024

A gigantic solar park will emerge in front of Highgrove, the country estate where King Charles loved to take refuge with Lady Diana when he was still Prince of Wales. And where Princes William and Harry grew up. The Lime Down Solar Park will span two thousand acres of countryside and have a capacity of 500 megawatts. It will provide electricity to one hundred and fifteen thousand homes in Wiltshire and neighboring Gloucestershire. But villagers around Highgrove are against it. They have promoted a petition and collected, so far, eight thousand signatures. “A havoc for the landscape,” they told the Times. The monarch’s neighbor, however, supports the development plan.

The documents reveal that the majority of the solar farm is expected to be built south of Malmesbury, in north Wiltshire, and on part of the Duke of Beaufort’s fifty-two thousand acre estate. His ex-wife Tracy Somerset, an actress and environmentalist who still lives in the family mansion, opposes the project: “Solar panels should be placed on roofs, along highways and in industrial areas. The land should be used for crops, not for the profits of a few landowners and investors.” The fields where solar panels and accumulators will be installed are reserved for agricultural production, they are not uncultivated. From Highgrove the battle is spreading to the whole of the United Kingdom. The authors of the petition would like to “prohibit mega solar systems larger than 50 megawatts”.

King Charles, for his part, did not comment. The monarch has always been close to environmental battles. But perhaps having within a stone’s throw of the villa where he now rests with his new wife, Queen Camilla, is another thing. The sovereign is so fond of the estate, purchased in 1980, that he designed its gardens. And there are many photographs released by the Royal House of Charles’ life in this enchanted corner of the Costwalds, the emerald hills that descend from Oxford towards Somerset, dotted with timeless villages and protected as an “area of ​​extraordinary beauty” since 1966.