Work on building the UK’s biggest solar farm on the outskirts of Faversham and Whitstable will get under way next month.

The controversial Project Fortress scheme will see 900 acres of land in Graveney covered in 880,000 solar panels, with the energy produced stored in an on-site battery the size of 20 football pitches.

When complete it will have three times the generating capacity of Britain’s current largest solar site.

Meanwhile, a family have urged the developers of a huge solar farm to assess the “detrimental” impact the project will have on their severely autistic twins.

Jacob and Samuel Montague, both 17, are educated at their home in Graveney - which stands just metres away from the site of what will be the largest facility of its kind in the UK.

The father of the twins, Mark Montague, fears the heavy construction traffic, “tip-tapping” from piling and the humming noise from the batteries on the plot between Faversham and Seasalter will affect his children.

And given the family have built a special educational needs school in their Seasalter Road garden so the boys can be taught at home, they fear they will be forced to leave the village.

“The heavy construction traffic will be rolled in about four feet away from one of the classrooms in our garden which is specifically for home education,” Mr Montague said.

“You have the noise and vibration, as well as the piling where the ‘tip-tapping’ will go on for quite a few months.

“It will affect the boys directly as they are sensitive to all types of sounds and that would be a constant background noise.

“Once the project has been completed, we have concerns about the humming noise from the batteries.”

Previously known as Cleve Hill, the mammoth scheme called Project Fortress is being led by London-based group Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.

The site, which will be powered by a lithium battery storage plant the size of 20 football pitches, was given planning permission by the government in 2020 in the face of strong opposition.

It will be made up of 880,000 panels and is hoped to have more than three times the generating capacity of the country’s current largest solar site.

Mr Montague, who along with his wife Annie is a fulltime carer of the twins, is now calling for a human rights assessment on his children to be carried out to determine the impact it will have.

He argues steps have been taken to mitigate the effect of the work on animals such as Guinea fowl, but not people.

“I want to stress that I’m not saying these wildlife surveys shouldn’t have been done,” he added.

“We love the wildlife around us and it is part of why we live here.

“I cannot understand why an impact assessment is restricted to wildlife when we have a special educational needs-status school here.”

As a family they were told they “wouldn’t survive this” after experts deemed the twins to have the most extreme autism they had seen and recommended they were put into care.

After almost agreeing that was the only option for the boys, they decided they “couldn’t give them up”.

The twins, who are both severely autistic and non-verbal, started at the Five Acre Wood special school in Maidstone in 2009 aged four, with the intention that they would attend until age 19.

However, their parents removed them in 2013 after realising staff were continually restraining the boys by strapping them into chairs despite numerous objections and protests.

Kent County Council (KCC), which runs the school, offered the parents more than £80,000 in compensation after admitting multiple failings following a legal case.

And the school apologised after being found to have breached the human rights of the boys.

But their dad says they suffered from PTSD following their traumatic experience.

Mr Montague raised his concerns again at a meeting with the developers at Graveney and Goodnestone Village Hall last Thursday.

A representative from Cleve Hill Solar Park says they recognise “the importance of minimising the impact in the construction phase of the project to the Montagues’ sons and their wellbeing”.

“The project has met with the family prior to the presentation at Graveney Village Hall on September 22, and is in the process of formulating a response as to how we intend to mitigate the impacts of construction,” the official said.

“We will continue to work with the Montagues to ensure solutions can be found and mitigation put in place to address their concerns, wherever possible.”

'Using us as guinea pigs to see how storage works'

It was also revealed last week contractors will start arriving on the site next month for initial works.

Residents were told there will be a “package of benefits” unveiled after the developers were asked what plans they have to make roads safer during and after construction.

But it could not be confirmed what these will be.

The main construction of the solar farm will take up to May 2024 to complete - with some of the site starting to produce power from July 2023.

The battery safety management plan is being worked on now, which will detail what types of battery will be used, safety measures and emergency protocols.

It is hoped this will be signed off by July next year after the plans are consulted on and rubber-stamped by Swale Borough Council.

One resident at Thursday’s meeting said: “What I find really shocking is that you’re going to be starting the project now and only now are you going through the design for the battery storage. It’s like you’re using us as guinea pigs to find out how these battery storages work.”

A representative from Cleve Hill Solar Farm says battery storage is a “proven and efficient technology widely used on renewable energy projects” across both the UK and around the world.

They add that “while the risk of any adverse event is extremely low”, the operational safety of the storage facility is “the utmost priority” as the design, layout and safety procedures are refined in collaboration with stakeholders.

“We will work closely with these consultees to ensure our battery safety management plan, which we are required to submit for approval before any battery storage can be installed on site, is as robust and comprehensive as possible,” they added.

“The battery storage units will be installed as part of ‘phase two’ of the project, likely to be early 2024, and only when the required safety and management plans have been signed off by the statutory consultees.

“Noise assessments have already been undertaken and can be found in chapter 12 of the environmental statement. The information to discharge requirements for the battery phase will include noise modelling relating to its operation.

“The project team will be attending regular stakeholder meetings, including a fortnightly traffic management group and parish council meetings to ensure a regular dialogue with local people.”