Plans have been lodged to build a solar panel array on a field next to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth as well as on the building’s roof as part of the institution’s plans to eliminate the use of fossil fuels on the site by 2028.

The library plans to have the whole of the heating and cooling loads required at the building provided by electrically operated reversible air source and ground source heat pumps, which are part of a separate application.

“The incorporation of heat pumps at the National Library will however significantly increase the electricity load required to serve the library site,” a report said, “and the proposed incorporation of PV panel arrays to part of the south field at the library and also on a variety of the library building roofs is thus viewed as important.”

The field, which is currently let out by the National Library as improved pasture land for sheep, “forms a part of the only significant area of free ground available on the library’s site,” planning documents outline, and “no possible alternative sites were able to be identified”.

Under the plans, panels will also be installed on the Third Library Building, Bookstacks 1 and 2, the Workshop Block, the North Reading Room Block, the Administration Block and the South Reading Room Block.

“It is felt that the overall impact of the proposed roof PV panel arrays on the National Library and its surroundings will be small,” planning documents say.

“It is felt that the global climate change crisis, currently being experienced and suffered worldwide, fully justifies the submitted proposals.”

The plans will now be considered by Ceredigion County Council planning officers.