Work on a 43,000-panel solar farm in Barkham, Berkshire is scheduled to start in November after Wokingham Borough Council signed a contract with Equans. The facility will generate enough power for roughly 9,400 homes and is expected to be operational by September 2027, with full grid connectivity following by 2029. The council projects over £1 million in annual income from the project and plans to include walking and cycling paths, biodiversity improvements, and hundreds of new trees, including about 1,000 fruit trees planted with local charity Freely Fruity. The project has faced earlier challenges, including a grid hook-up setback and the displacement of a tenant cattle farmer in 2021. The land is intended to return to agricultural use after 25 years. Construction begins in November, with the council aiming for completion ahead of its original schedule, having previously stated the farm could be built a decade earlier than initially planned.
