Moray Council has granted Bristol-based Elgin Energy (www.elgin-energy.com) planning permission for a 20MW solar farm near Urquhart, with around 80,000 solar panels.

The farm will be constructed on the 47-hectare Speyslaw site — at around the size of 40 football pitches, it would be Scotland’s largest (overtaking a 13MW project at the Errol Estate in Perthshire, which went live in May last year).

Elgin Energy also developed that scheme, which includes 55,000 solar panels capable of generating enough power for more than 3,500 homes. The new project will include a sub-station, 20 inverter stations and a CCTV camera system.

All cabling at the site — spread over three fields at the Innes Estate — will be underground, allowing sheep to graze around the panels.

Permission for the solar farm is valid for 30 years, after which the developer will have one year to decommission it and restore the site to a condition agreed with the council.

A habitat management plan must also be approved by the council before works can begin.

Elgin Energy, which has already developed 250MW of solar power across 24 projects in the UK and Ireland, is planning an even bigger solar farm in Moray — a 50MW project at the former RAF Milltown airfield, a few miles north east of Elgin. A decision on that application is not expected until early next year.