Everyone in the Cumbrian market town of Egremont has a view of Dent Fell.

The local churchgoers go up there for their morning service at Easter to eat hot cross buns; young couples propose to one another at its summit; families scatter the ashes of loved ones on its slopes, from which on a clear day you can see Scotland.

So when in 2015 a farmer unveiled a plan to install a 48-metre wind turbine on the fell, it was met with dismay by the local community, the council and the National Trust.

The application was rejected. But this year the same farmer, 79-year-old Terry Dixon, had a fresh plan for a solar farm covering 200 acres of land which includes parts of the fell — and this time with national planning guidance on his side.

The proposal has caused anger once more. To appease residents, the energy company behind the scheme tried to win them over by offering nearly £700,000 for community initiatives.

Residents responded to the offer at a town meeting by sticking Post-it notes on a suggestion board. One wrote three words: “Just f*** off.”

Many in Egremont are now preparing to fight the application every step of the way amid a national boom in solar farms.

In the past four years alone there have been 3,644 applications for solar farms, covering at least 162 square miles of land — an area larger than the cities of Birmingham and Liverpool combined — analysis by The Sunday Times shows. In the four years before that there were only 343 applications.

This rise in applications has caused a clash between those living in rural communities, farmers trying to boost profits from their land, and the Labour government which, like the Conservatives before them, is trying to reduce the nation’s reliance on imported fossil fuels.

Cobra Castle Farm, which sits on the side of Dent Fell, is owned by the dairy farmer Dixon and his wife, Eileen. They have two grown-up sons, one of whom helps run their farms, which records show are worth at least £2 million in total.

When Dixon first considered building a three-bladed wind turbine in 2015, Egremont town council objected. “This visual intrusion will scar this scenic and unspoilt landscape for years to come,” planning records say.

The National Trust also objected, saying it could impact on the character of the Lake District National Park less than two miles away. Copeland borough council, as it was known then, refused the application.

But in 2025, Dixon, who has farmed dairy cows for 50 years and believes in helping to save the planet, returned with another plan — a 200-acre solar farm on Cobra Castle land which would be built by a company called Belltown Power, one of a number of private firms which have risen to prominence in recent years to build solar farms.

Run by Paul Hewett, a former troop commander in the British Army, the firm runs adverts and hosts webinars through the magazine Farmers Weekly to encourage farmers to consider leasing their land for solar. In one webinar Hewett describes how potential rents for farmers vary from £700 to £1,000 an acre per year and even £1,200 “for the best sites”.

He explains how farmers can “take rents forward” to get a “large upfront payment” in exchange for a lower long-term rent, as a way of releasing capital without selling land for the farmer. Hewett describes how sheep and small livestock are able to still graze on the land, with the region restored back to its natural state and the equipment taken away after 40 years.

Ian McIntyre and Fiona Emerson, who live in Cote Close farm, a 16-acre smallholding on Dent Fell, first found out about the Belltown scheme when a friend came to cut down a tree in March. Emerson, an industrial project manager, said: “He told us, ‘Terry is planning a solar farm.’ I felt sick when I heard.”

She received a message showing a map of the proposed development. It completely surrounded her home. The couple, from Whitehaven, bought their farm to live in remote countryside so Emerson could ride horses.

“It would destroy my life,” said Emerson. “These plans would ruin the natural beauty of the fell.”

Dixon, meanwhile, would earn about £1,000 per acre per year, making possible annual earnings of £200,000 if the plan goes ahead, and his dairy farm viable for his family in years to come.

In mid-March, Emerson set up a Facebook group, called Dent Fell / Cobra Castle Solar Farm Opposition Group, which has close to 800 members.

Then the couple received a letter from Belltown, which listed the benefits of solar farming and revealed that the firm was offering a community benefit and education fund of £680,000 for Egremont. The company also promised hedgerow enhancements, wildflower meadows, a habitat for mammals, reptiles and bugs, and “active grassland management” to help “small mammals, invertebrates and birds, especially in winter”.

A website set up by Belltown claims that the solar farm will generate 35MW, which it says is enough to supply approximately 15,000 homes, operate for 40 years and contribute £2.1 million in business rates to Cumberland council, formerly Copeland, over its lifespan. It also highlighted the council’s climate and nature strategy 2024, which commits to reducing carbon emissions and includes a quote from Sir David Attenborough: “If we don’t act now, it’ll be too late. Every day that goes by in which we don’t do something about it is a day wasted.”

A maximum of 18GW of electricity — enough for approximately 4.7 million homes — comes from solar power nationally, which produces about 5 per cent of the electricity generated in the UK, according to government data. This compares with wind on 30 per cent, gas on 26 per cent, and nuclear on 14 per cent.

Labour’s target, part of its Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, is to raise solar’s electrical capacity to 45-57GW by 2030, enough for 15 million homes.

Analysis of planning applications by The Sunday Times shows that of 5,871 solar projects submitted since 2010, 4,439 have had planning permission granted. Only about 264 were refused, 164 had their applications withdrawn and a further 129 projects were abandoned. The rest are at different stages of planning or appeal.

Solar panel technology has improved, according to the trade association Solar Energy UK, meaning that they can be installed in locations with fewer sunny days. Chris Hewett, from Solar Energy UK, said: “You can basically set up a solar farm anywhere in the UK, because the panels have become much more efficient.”

Some communities are supportive. In the Somerset Levels, a vast, low-lying area characterised by wetlands near Yeovil, a landowning dairy and sheep farmer is subsidising his income by leasing 60 of his 700 acres of land to British Solar Renewables.

Andrew Maltby, 60, earns about £1,000 per acre a year from the panels on his land. “Dairy farming and beef farming pay not even a quarter of that,” he said.

There were initial objections to his farm, but they have long disappeared, and he even has sheep grazing among his panels.

Maltby said: “I would say that knowing the gross margins of British agriculture, a steady income of such a substantial amount provided by solar is something you have to consider as a farmer. You would be mad not to look at it.”

Large solar schemes providing more than 50MW of electricity — enough to power 15,000-17,000 homes — are classed as national infrastructure and go through the Planning Inspectorate, a government agency which reports to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, run by Angela Rayner. However, from December this will only happen to schemes providing more than 100MW, in measures to speed up applications for large solar projects.

Labour has also updated the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which underpins council planning decisions, and now “gives significant weight to the benefits associated with renewable and low-carbon energy generation and the proposal’s contribution to a net-zero future” when determining applications. The changes also remove a provision which previously allowed local authorities to block solar farms over food production concerns.

This is creating friction up and down the UK.

Emma Sturdy, 46, and her husband Rob, 54, who are arable and beef cattle tenant farmers in Old Malton, North Yorkshire, found out in 2020 that roughly half their 280 acres had been identified for a solar farm.

The land their farm sits on is owned by the Fitzwilliam Trust Corporation so they have no control over what happens to it. The plan was initially refused by North Yorkshire council, but the energy company appealed the decision, which went to the Planning Inspectorate for a public inquiry last year. The evidence for both sides was presented to the government and in March, Matthew Pennycook, the housing and planning minister, approved the solar farm.

“We were devastated,” said Sturdy, who added that about 60 per cent of land on the scheme is classed as “best farmland”.

“Sadly, the best farmland doesn’t seem to hold a lot of weight any more,” she said. “Planning is becoming so in favour of renewable energy schemes that it is very difficult to win an appeal. What is enough to overturn or throw out a solar application? It feels like nothing.”

This scenario worries the residents of Egremont.

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On April 3, Belltown Power held a community consultation meeting at Egremont Market Hall, Cumbria. “There were crowds of people there from the town,” said Emerson. “They were all saying, ‘It’s disgusting, it’s disgusting.’”

The power company set up a board on a stand in the hall reading: “What local initiatives would you like to see supported by the community benefit fund?” The townsfolk were encouraged to write ideas on Post-it notes and stick them on the board. Ideas included: “Go away”, “We are not for sale!”, “Please go away 100% our homes”, “absolutely not”, “not on our doorstep, no” and “Just F off!”

One feedback form read simply: “BRIBE.”

Dixon did not attend the meeting, but he told The Sunday Times: “It’s not going to spoil most people’s view. There are a few areas where you can see it. But most in the town of Egremont won’t be able to see it. The objections are many, saying it will destroy wildlife and so on. All the evidence is that it doesn’t.”

Dixon said the solar farm was a “no brainer”. He believes people were “trying to think of reasons why it shouldn’t happen”.

“Some are suggesting it will cover the fell in solar panels, making it an emotive issue,” he said. “I am way past retirement age and I am thinking of the future for my family. It will mean the farm will stay viable. There are dairy farmers leaving the industry every year.

“If they can get planning, the way they are talking they can make it happen very quickly. We are profitable. The farm will be here if we have a solar farm or not, it’s not a life or death situation. The farm makes money because we do a good job.

“There’s a lot of negativity about it [the solar farm] but I have always been keen, not just as a farmer who wants to make a bit more money, but as a man who wants to save the planet. I really feel we should be doing a lot more, a lot faster, because the technology is there for wind and solar and batteries. It’s a big part of the answer.”

Belltown Power’s website says it is committed to playing its part in enabling the energy transition and combating the climate emergency, having an expanded pipeline of over 1GW of subsidised UK wind and solar projects under development. The company was contacted for comment but did not immediately respond.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “Solar is at the heart of our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower, and communities are now set to receive a cash boost for new facilities when they host solar farms.

“Our planning changes are about building on brownfield first, and clearly protect longstanding green belt purposes, while setting out a more strategic, targeted approach to this type of land.

“Alongside this our changes to the NPPF will help us deliver clean power by 2030 and build the foundation of an energy system that can bring down families’ bills for good.”