Plans have been lodged with Renfrewshire Council for the development of a solar farm in Inchinnan.

Mactaggart and Mickel want permission for the installation on land between Nether Southbar and East Fulwood, in Greenock Road.

The planned development would involve ground-mounted photovoltaic panels, with associated infrastructure, to generate up to 14.3 megawatts of renewable energy for the local electricity grid network.

A planning statement submitted by Iceni Projects on behalf of the applicant said: “Inchinnan Solar Park would provide a significant environmental benefit by generating a large amount of clean, renewable, zero carbon electricity.

“The quantity of electricity generated each year could meet the annual demand of around 5,184 medium-usage homes per year or 8,351 low-usage homes.

“The proposed mitigation strategy has been designed to improve and contribute to the local landscape character of the area, whilst also screening or filtering views towards the proposed development, providing an attractive, robust and defensible landscape boundary treatment that increases overall biodiversity value.

“The proposed development would bring socio-economic benefits including job opportunities, increase in local worker spending, increase in energy security and dual use of the site for agriculture and energy generation.”

Hedgerows currently surround the boundaries of the field, with a cluster of trees located along one of the north-western boundaries.

Greenock Road forms the northern boundary of the site, while Houston Road forms the southern boundary.

Barnsford Road is located beyond the site to the east and the M8 motorway is beyond the site to the west.

Construction of the facility, if approved, would take around six months.

During this period, vehicles and deliveries would be visiting the site.

However, thereafter, during the operational phase, the applicant team said there would be “very limited vehicular movements associated with the proposed development.”

There would be around one to two vehicle trips each month in relation to the maintenance of the solar park.

Councillors will make a decision on the application in due course.