Rattled residents living near the UK's biggest solar power station have dubbed the enormous site a "carbuncle" on the British countryside. Aerial images of the massive Cleve Hill Solar Park near the village of Graveney, in Kent, show the gigantic complex stretching to the horizon by the banks of the River Swale.

According to the Cleve Hill solar website the now operational site can provide "affordable and clean electricity" to power 102,000 homes with 550,000 solar panels. However, the power generated has been purchased in corporate agreements, with supermarket firm Tesco buying 65% and the remaining 35% going to the oil giant Shell. With a 373 megawatt (MW) capacity Cleve Hill produces less energy than the average coal power station, which see output of around 500MW.

As a nationally significant infrastructure project, permission to build the solar farm was granted by the Government, not Swale Borough Council (SBC). The local authority later refused permission for the massive lithium Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to be built, but refusal was later overturned at an appeal to the government's planning inspectorate, reported KentLive.

Now the site is operational several residents have spoken out about their concerns with the project, with one man telling The Sun: "It’s a carbuncle."

He added: "They said it could supply 100,000 homes with electricity. Then we found out Tesco and Shell are buying the electric from it."

Former borough councillor William Boggia, 97, told the paper he understood the "value of farmland", and added that the solar panels could be put in a better place. Phil Harris, the owner of the The Sportsman pub in Graveney, questioned why it was built in a field to supply Tesco when the firm had "an enormous amount of roof space everywhere".

He noted: “They could put roofs over their car parks.”

KentLive reports Private Energy Partners, who own the solar power station, are running a £500,000 Cleve Hill Solar Park Community Benefit Fund, to which local organisations can apply for grants over the next eight years.

In late 2025, funding was awarded to numerous organisations, such as £18,000 for a new PA system for Graveney Parish Church, and more than £23,000 to Hernhill C of E Primary School for a digital learning suite.

Kent Wildlife Trust campaigned against the solar power station citing a design which it claims is "likely to increase the impacts and significantly reduce the opportunities for wildlife".

On the trust website it states: "Owing to the flood risk, the panels will also be placed quite high and will be almost 4 metres tall in places, leading to quite an industrial landscape.

"Whilst we are disappointed that this scheme will be going ahead, there is a silver lining in that we secured larger buffers to the ditches, more mitigation land and better management. These achievements mean that the consented development is a marked improvement from the initial application, and some species may even be better off."