Power plant · Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom

Snarlton Farm (Melksham solar farm)

Snarlton Farm (Melksham solar farm) is a power plant in Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom, with 49.6 MW of capacity, operated by Foresight.

Facts

Every value links to its source, and to the source's own record where it has one. Licences and last-checked dates are per row.

Fact	Value	Source
Location	Wiltshire (coordinates), England	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Address	Land at Snarlton Farm Snarlton Lane Melksham Wilts, SN12 7QP	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Status	Operating (operational)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Start year	2016	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Permit date	18 Jun 2015 (permit 13/06140/FUL, Town and Country Planning Act, issued by Wiltshire)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Application date	19 Nov 2013 (reference 13/06140/FUL, planning authority Wiltshire)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Decision date	16 Apr 2014 (refused, reference 13/06140/FUL, planning authority Wiltshire)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Decision date	18 Jun 2015 (appeal granted, reference 13/06140/FUL, planning authority Wiltshire)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Decision date	18 Jun 2015 (granted, reference 13/06140/FUL, planning authority Wiltshire)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Operator	Foresight	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Capacity	49.6 MW	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Technology	Solar Photovoltaics	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Area	80.5 ha (solar site area)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Coordinates	51.3738, -2.0869	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026

Research on this power plant and its operator.Who owns it up to the parent company, its grid connection and planning status, and an introduction to the operator.

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Latest events

Dated events about this power plant from official notices and registers, newest first. All recent changes.

31 Mar 2016Commissioned
18 Jun 2015Permit granted (appeal granted, planning authority Wiltshire, reference 13/06140/FUL)
18 Jun 2015Permit granted (planning authority Wiltshire, reference 13/06140/FUL)
16 Apr 2014Permit refused (planning authority Wiltshire, reference 13/06140/FUL)
19 Nov 2013Permit applied for (planning authority Wiltshire, reference 13/06140/FUL)

How it compares

Snarlton Farm (Melksham solar farm) is the 248th-largest of 3,430 power plants in England and the 457th-largest of 5,050 in the United Kingdom by capacity; its 49.6 MW is <0.1% of the 115,622 MW we hold for the United Kingdom. Ranks and totals cover the power plants in our data that report their capacity, not every one in existence. Power plants planned, permitted or under construction are ranked apart.

Within	Rank	Total	Share
England	248th of 3,430	71,965 MW	<0.1%
United Kingdom	457th of 5,050	115,622 MW	<0.1%
All power plants in our data	1,963rd of 12,032	1,190,447 MW	<0.1%

Timeline

Dated facts about this power plant from its sources, oldest first.

2016Started operating

Nearby

Within 50 km of this power plant: 185 grid connections (112 operating, 1,230 MW), 104 substations, 7 data centers, 1 AI supercomputer and 1 transmission line, measured from the coordinates in the facts above. The table shows the nearest 9, up to 3 per kind.

Name	Kind	Size	Status	Distance
Sandridge Farm PV Generation grid connection	Grid connection	37.5 MW	Operating	0.9 km
Solar PV grid connection	Grid connection	1.9 MW	Operating	1.7 km
Snarlton Lane grid connection	Grid connection	49.9 MW	Planned	2.0 km
Melksham Town Primary	Substation	—	—	3.9 km
Melksham GSP	Substation	—	—	4.8 km
Bromham Primary	Substation	—	—	5.1 km
Data center, England (OSM way 996865179)	Data center	—	—	10 km
Ark Data Centres	Data center	—	—	10 km
Vodafone	Data center	—	—	26 km

Operator and place

Other power plants in England

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Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind Farm1,500 MW
Hornsea 2 - Optimus and Breesea1,320 MW
Hornsea 1 - Heron & Njord1,218 MW
Atlantic Array One - Bristol Channel Zone1,200 MW
Five Estuaries - Wind Farm1,080 MW
Rugeley Power Plant Conversion1,000 MW
Teesworks Battery Storage Project1,000 MW

All 5809 power plants in England, United Kingdom

Data on this page

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD), Open Government Licence v3.0.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (Sep 2026). EIA-860 / 860M / 923, Public domain.
JRC Open Power Plants Database (JRC-PPDB-OPEN), European Commission, Joint Research Centre. JRC Open Power Plants Database (JRC-PPDB-OPEN), CC BY 4.0.
Bundesnetzagentur, Marktstammdatenregister. Marktstammdatenregister, DL-DE-BY-2.0.
Dutch power station owners' and operators' pages. Dutch power station owners' and operators' pages, Facts only, each linked to its page.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Planning Inspectorate: National Infrastructure Projects, Open Government Licence v3.0.
RVO SDE(+)(+) projecten in beheer and SDE viewer. RVO SDE(+)(+) projecten in beheer and SDE viewer, Free reuse, no attribution required.
SSEN Distribution. SSEN Distribution data portal, CC BY 4.0.