Solar Farm Approved

After years of planning, then two public consultation events in our village in March last year, followed by a detailed submission to Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) twelve months’ later, proposals for a large ‘hybrid renewable energy project’ on agricultural land south west of Ruddington have now been approved. On Monday (2nd October 2023) RBC planners gave the go-ahead for Ridge Clean Energy (RCE) to construct ‘Fair Oaks Renewable Energy Park’ at Fields Farm off Asher Lane. The green power generation scheme will pair 49.9MW of solar panels with 49.9MW of battery storage capacity – said to be enough…

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Ruddington Solar Farm Application

Following a public consultation in our village in March 2022, Ridge Clean Energy (RCE) has now submitted a full planning application for its proposed ‘hybrid renewable energy project’ on agricultural land south west of Ruddington. Called ‘Fair Oaks Renewable Energy Park’ the power generation scheme would be located at Fields Farm off Asher Lane and pair 49.9MW of solar panels with 49.9MW of battery storage capacity. That’s said to be enough to supply 11,200 homes with green electricity. The company says the combination of technologies can achieve “efficient, reliable, and stable…

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Ruddington’s New ‘Green’ Buses on Schedule

Back in March we reported the announcement by Ruddington’s main bus operator that its entire fleet of 78 single decker buses will be fully electrified from 2023. This includes replacing the three diesel-powered Navy 3 branded ‘Optare Solo’ buses which Nottingham City Transport (NCT) currently uses for its Nottingham to Clifton route via Ruddington. The operator has just announced that Pelican Bus & Coach will deliver the first 12 of the fully electric buses to join the NCT fleet, which are expected to enter service in late 2023. Unfortunately, these zero-emission vehicles are not…

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Positive Response to Solar Farm Plans

Proposals for a renewable energy park on current agricultural land to the south west of Ruddington seem to have received a mostly favourable reaction from villagers so far. Further details about this planned green power project were revealed today (Tuesday 22nd March) by Ridge Clean Energy during the first of its two public exhibitions being held in St Peter’s Rooms. The solar farm would be built on 99 hectares of arable land belonging to Ruddington Fields Farm and involve installing solar PV, batteries, access tracks and associated infrastructure. Display boards…

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Ruddington’s State of the Art Green Energy Park

Ridge Clean Energy are proposing a renewable energy park, consisting of a solar farm and battery energy storage system, on land to the south west of Ruddington Village. We have been developing, constructing and operating clean energy projects in Great Britain since 2003 and are keen to elevate the importance of producing domestic, homegrown, clean renewable energy. Fair Oaks Renewable Energy Park would generate as much electricity as is used by approximately 11,200 homes annually, offsetting carbon emissions from fossil fuel generators. We work in partnership with many areas of the community including landowners, councils,…

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Incinerator Plans Approved

In August last year, RUDDINGTON.info reported on a village-led campaign to “Stop the Incinerator” which was being proposed for the site of the soon-to-be decommissioned Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. It followed an application submitted to Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) in July 2020 by Uniper UK Limited for the development of ‘The East Midlands Energy Re-Generation’ (EMERGE) Centre – which it described as a ‘multifuel energy recovery facility – to recover energy from waste material’. This proposal meant environmental campaigners’ initial joy – that a coal fired power plant now so little used by The National Grid was to be…

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Another Ruddington Power Cut!

Essential shops and businesses in our village centre working through this second ‘lockdown’ were among those left without electricity early this afternoon when there was yet another major power outage.* Those relying on mains power in order to continue their work had to sit out the interruption to their supplies, which happened at around a quarter to two – also triggering alarms in some High Street premises. It lasted initially for around 15 minutes before being restored briefly but then failing again for a further forty minutes. Western Power Distribution (WPD) has confirmed 1,985…

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Ruddington Blackout Explained

Ruddington’s electricity supplier has revealed the cause of a power cut which hit around half the homes in our village last night (18th October). Families enjoying Sunday night television were plunged into darkness at 8.05pm. After carrying out an investigation today, Western Power Distribution (WPD) reports that a fault on one its high voltage underground cables was to blame for a total of 1,974 properties initially being blacked out. For the majority of residents the outage was only for a couple of minutes – although many properties then had a second,…

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Campaign to ‘Stop The Incinerator’

Now it seems there’s another burning issue getting people hot under the collar in Ruddington. It’s after an application was submitted to Nottinghamshire County Council last month to turn the soon-to-be-decommissioned Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station into a waste incineration plant. Environmental campaigners’ initial joy, that the coal fired power plant is now so little used by The National Grid that it’ll be shut down within five years, has since turned to dismay on learning what might replace it. The proposal by Uniper UK Limited is for the development of ‘The East Midlands…

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Fire Blacks Out Elms Park Properties

Television viewing and internet browsing were brought to an abrupt halt in one area of Ruddington last night as around 124 homes lost power. Tuesday evening’s outage affected residents of Elms Park and Sheepfold Lane. One householder reported flames shooting from a manhole on the roadside – before emergency services and an electricity van arrived at the scene. David Brown, who shared the above photo on social media at around half past eleven, reported: “Two fire engines, about nine police officers and a Western Power engineer turned up. All power out.…

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