A HUGE solar farm is set to be built on 22-acres of land in Laindon to provide renewable energy for the next 30 years.

The solar farm will be built on land off Lower Dunton Road and will generate 10million Watts of electricity, enough for more than 2,300 homes, as well as reduce the amount of carbon emissions in the area.

Members of the Thurrock planning committee unanimously approved the application by MS Power Projects Ltd which will see 40,000 photo-voltaic arrays installed at the site.

Basildon Council was asked for feedback on the plan as the farm is on its border, but decided it did not need to reply.

Phil Anderson, a Tory councillor on the committee, said the application was a sign of the times. He said: “Given the long-term social benefits of moving to this sort of technology and the fact that this is a good site to use, my gut feeling is we should give it a go.”

Planning Officer Matthew Gallagher said the solar farm would be on a ‘relatively isolated site’ and would have a limited impact on residential properties.

Of around 15 houses consulted in Lower Dunton Road, only one objection was received.

A number of jobs will be created while the south-facing panels are installed, but it is not known how many.

The solar farm will be operational for 30 years, after which it is proposed the installation will be removed and the land will be restored to its current state.

A two metre high fence will close off the area, which will be opposite the Essex Wildlife Trust.

The project will not begin until a number of conditions are met, including planting trees and hedges around the site.

It is the first major solar farm plan to be brought to south Essex, but in the north of the county schemes are planned for photovoltaic power stations in Little Clacton, Langenhoe, Boxted Airfield, Gosfield, Stisted and Pentlow.

Only last week more than 600 campaigners signed a petition against building solar farms on 300 acres of green land in Halstead, described by MP Brooks Newmark as “prime agricultural land in an area of natural beauty”.

There will be up to 3,000 in the south of England by 2020 to enable the Government to meet legal obligations to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions by 15 per cent.