The Coalition for Gozo has strongly objected to plans for an industrial -scale photovoltaic solar farm on Ta' Kuljat Hill in Żebbuġ, warning that the development would damage protected countryside and set a dangerous precedent for Gozo's rural landscape.
The proposal, filed under application PA/03747/26, would see a ground-mounted solar farm spread across around 27,360 square metres of open countryside, an area equivalent to almost four full-size football pitches.
According to the Coalition, the site lies on an exposed hilltop within an Area of High Landscape Sensitivity and includes mapped garrigue habitat. A substantial part of the proposed development would be placed directly on this protected habitat, it said.
The Coalition stressed that it is not opposed to renewable energy, but argued that solar farms should be directed towards rooftops, industrial areas, landfills, quarries, or other already disturbed sites, rather than untouched countryside.
It said the proposal is particularly concerning because it would affect a prominent rural hilltop, potentially scarring Ta' Kuljat Hill, damaging agricultural land and fragmenting an intact countryside landscape.
The group also raised concerns over access to the site. While the applicant claims that no new access route would be required, the Coalition said the existing path is a narrow country track, measuring less than one metre wide in some areas, and would not be able to accommodate construction traffic, heavy machinery or the transport of photovoltaic panels.
It argued that any realistic access solution would likely require works on agricultural land and rural infrastructure.
The proposed development would also require cables, poles, trenching and works to connect the project to the national grid, the Coalition said. Security and maintenance lighting, it added, would introduce light pollution to an area that is currently rural and undeveloped.
The Coalition said the application conflicts with several planning policies intended to protect Areas of High Landscape Sensitivity, garrigue habitat, possible archaeological remains, hydrological systems and rural land.
It also said the project is incompatible with the Solar Farm Policy 2021, which directs solar farms away from virgin land, agricultural land, open countryside, garrigue and areas of high landscape sensitivity.
The group pointed out that the Planning Authority had previously refused a comparable proposal, PA/03090/17, because it failed to satisfy the Solar Farm Policy. It said the current application departs even further from the applicable planning framework.
The Coalition for Gozo is urging the Planning Authority to reject PA/03747/26.