Steaming towers at Didcot A Power Station will soon be things of the past, no longer visible from the nation’s oldest road, but modern windmills and solar panels are about to feature in the view instead.

Prospective Green candidate for Wantage in the last General Election, landowner Adam Twine, is covering an area of 30 acres with solar panels at Westmill Farm, Watchfield, next door to the five 1.3 megawatt (MW) wind turbines erected in 2008 and they will be visible from the Ridgeway.

In microcosm, the view from the famous National Trail encapsulates the global dilemma — scheduled to be debated on June 13 at the Said Business School — namely: the battle between increasing energy demand versus the desire for a low carbon future.

Promoters of Westmill Windfarm describe the place as the first wholly “community-owned” windfarm in the south east of England, built with the help of £4.6m raised through shares sold to local residents and the public at large.

Now Mr Twine is taking the next logical step in green energy production — and solar panels are sprouting up on his farm faster than even the quickest growing cash crop.

That is because the Government’s is proposing to change the Feed In Tariff scheme which guarantees minimum payments for electricity generated by wind, waves or solar, as well as another payment for green power exported to the National Grid.

Mr Twine said: “The feed-in tariff for solar energy may change on August 1 — so the solar farm, the first in Oxfordshire, must be up and generating before then to benefit from the current system.

“We learned of the planning consent on Monday last week and started work on site that day.”

As with the windfarm, shares are being offered in the £12m solar project and Mr Twine and his partners hope to raise about £3m that way.

The rest of the money is being paid up front by Cheshire company Blue Energy who have leased the land.

Mr Twine explained: “They own the project at the moment but we have an option to buy it back within a year.

“The shares are being offered in a new co-operative called the Westmill Solar Co-operative. It is similar to the Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative though I don’t expect shares to sell as fast as the wind ones did because we’re offering ten per cent return, not 16 per cent — though that return will be more reliable.”

And reliability is key because both wind and solar are notoriously unrelaible. But put them together and you have a more consistently reliable product.

But why does he go down the co-operative route here, rather than simply doing the job himself?

He said: “Its a business model I believe in. Also I am charging rent for leasing the land which is greater than the farming income would be. And of course I think that climate change is important — as is community involvement.”

He has been farming in Oxfordshire, mainly organically, for about 25 years and now posesses 1,200 acres — some rented and some owned. The Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative, the first onshore wind farm to be built in the south-east, now has 2,374 members who, of course, might now be interested in buying into the solar project too.

Mr Twine said: “There are really four partners in this project: Low Carbon Solar, based in Circencester, which is acting as the developer; myself as landowner; Blue Energy; and Energy4All which is experienced in this field and will manage the share sales and the co-operative.”

Energy4All is a family of co-operatives based in Cumbria and was established in 2002 to facilitate the ownership and operation of renewable energy projects.

It came into being following the success of the Baywind wind farm, set up in 1996 in Cumbria, and now the UK’s largest windfarm and run entirely by its 1,300 members, each of whom now receives about seven per cent a year on their investment — including tax relief from the Government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme.

It seems that in Oxfordshire at least, community-run co-operatives are flavour of the month.

Alongside the windfarm, and the burgeoning solar farm, comes news that yet another co-operative has come into being — Co-operative Energy, owned by Midcounties Co-op, which was launched last month <<May>> with the intention of offering a single unit price for its electricity.

Now Co-operative Energy has signed a deal with Westmill Wind Farm to buy 40 per cent of its output — which is estimated to total almost five million kWhs or enough energy to power 1,500 homes a year.

Nigel Mason of Co-operative Energy said: “Co-operative Energy is proud and delighted to be taking renewable anergy from Westmill Wind Farm, one of the first wholly-owned wind farms in the UK and the first to be built in the south east of England.

“Our customers will benefit from clean, cost-effective energy generated onsite in Oxfordshire.”

He added that the big six energy retailers provide 99 per cent of UK market making it difficult for newcomers to set up in competition.

So whatever you think about renewable energy, Oxfordshire co-operatives are nothing if not brave. Here is wishing them luck.

As for those steaming cooling towers at Didcot A, that great ogre on the skyline that so many of us love to hate, it must close by January 1 2016 at the latest.

No-one knows exactly what will replace it — but co-operatives are making a start. In the meantime, Didcot A’s owner RWE has diluted its dependence on coal by converting three of its 500MW generating units to burn natural gas.

And the station can also burn enough so called carbon neutral fuels, such biomass sawdust, to power 50,000 homes a year.

• Anyone interested in buying shares in the solar farm should contact Energy4All on 01229 821028 or see the website www.energy4all.co.uk