Economic Benefits Statement of a Solar Farm in Kent
Hardisty Jones were commissioned by Enviromena to deliver an economic benefit statement in support of a planning application for the proposed development of St Mary’s Solar Farm in Folkestone & Hythe.
Client
Enviromena
Services
The proposed St Mary’s Solar Farm, located north-west of St Mary’s Bay, is proposed to have a generating capacity of up to 16 MW of electricity and would generate 40 years of renewable energy.
Importance of solar farms to the economy
The UK Government has a legal commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which means increasing renewable energy generation is a consistent ambition across local, regional, and national policy.
Solar power deployment has increased significantly in the UK, with solar powered electricity in rising by nearly a third between 2024 and 2025[1]. Current UK installed solar capacity stands at 23.3 GW. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ) Clean Power 2030 Action Plan sets out the ambition to deliver up to 47 GW of solar energy capacity in the UK by 2030.
DESNZ’s Solar Roadmap, published in June 2025, highlights that ‘ramping up the deployment [of solar energy generation] is crucial for creating new, good quality jobs and promoting stable and consistent economic growth’. The Roadmap also estimates that solar power generation could support up to 35,000 direct and indirect jobs in Great Britain by 2030.
Economic benefits statement
The economic impacts of solar farms are known to be limited at operational phase, however there are other impacts that generated from construction and wider economic contributions from developers.
In support of the planning application, Hardisty Jones delivered an economic benefits statement to demonstrate the positive socio-economic impacts that the proposed St Mary’s Solar Farm would deliver to the local community and the national economy. This included:
- Demonstrating how the proposed development aligns to national and local policy objectives, particularly around the structural economic case for reaching net zero.
- Assessing employment, wages, and GVA that would be generated in the UK by the activities during the construction, operation, and decommissioning phases, based on capital expenditure.
- Assessing the net additional economic benefits that could take place at the local authority level.
Our work demonstrated the economic benefits the St Mary’s Solar Farm would deliver, which included a consideration of supply chain spending, and showed the economic contribution of the project to the UK and Folkestone & Hythe economy over its 40-year lifetime. St Mary’s Solar Farm was approved with conditions in January 2026.
If you would like to talk to us about how we can support your efforts to make the case for and assess the economic impacts for a renewable energy development, please get in touch.
[1] BBC News, 2026. Record year for wind and solar electricity in Great Britain in 2025 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz947djd3d3o
