Plans have been lodged to create one of the biggest solar farms in Scotland in the Buchan countryside.
Green Energy International wants to construct a 36 MW scheme, featuring more than 100,000 panels, on 130 acres of land at Bilbo Farm near Crimond.
It is hoped the site would be active for at least 35 years, with the land being returned to its original state at the end of that period.
Documents submitted alongside the application say that Bilbo Farm was picked for the solar panels because it is flat, remote and easily accessible from the A90 Peterhead to Fraserburgh road.
Sheep would continue to graze around the energy equipment once it is set up.
The planning statement said the Bilbo Solar Farm, as it would become known, would be connected to a substation by an underground cable.
It said: “The vision for the Bilbo Solar Farm project aims to utilise a known surplus of spare grid capacity at the Strichen grid supply point substation.
“Early investigations by grid technicians identified between 25 and 70 MW of surplus capacity which feeds the local grid around Strichen and the National Grid in north-east Scotland.”
In documents to be considered by planning bosses at Aberdeenshire Council, Green Energy said the scheme would have a “neutral impact” on residents living nearby.
The statement added it could create jobs for the village but did not go into any details about how many opportunities there could be.
It said: “While the benefits of the proposal are predominantly environmental, the proposals, where possible, will also generate both short and longer-term employment opportunities.
“A local labour force will be used to deliver materials to the site and construct the site. In the long term, employment will be created to maintain and monitor the site.”
If given the go-ahead the project would dwarf the 13 MW development
at Errol in Perthshire, which went live in May 2016, and another solar farm near Speyslaw in Moray which was approved last year.
But the proposed Crimond project would have to go some way to beat the 200,000-panel development at the former RAF Milltown airbase near Lhanbryde, which was given permission last spring.
