Consent granted for three major solar farm projects in England

Renewable energy expert Gareth Phillips and property law expert Richard Griffiths, both of Pinsent Masons, were commenting after Ed Miliband, the secretary of state for energy security and net zero, granted development consent to Sunnica Energy Farm, Mallard Pass Solar Farm, and Gate Burton Energy Park on Friday.

All three projects qualify as ‘nationally significant infrastructure projects’ (NSIPs) as it is envisaged that each solar farm will generate more than 50MW of power once constructed.

NSIPs are subject to a special consenting regime in England, where the decision-making powers rest with the secretary of state unless otherwise delegated to local planning authorities. The proposals for such projects are assessed against relevant national policy statements (NPSs) – in this case, the overarching NPS for energy and the specific NPS for renewable energy infrastructure.

The Sunnica Energy Farm is to span different sites across East Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk and, according to the developers, will generate enough power for 172,000 homes. The Mallard Pass Solar Farm in Lincolnshire is expected to generate around 350MW of renewable energy, which the developers say would power the equivalent of 92,000 UK homes. The Gate Burton Energy Park project, also in Lincolnshire, is to add 500MW of renewable energy generation capacity to the electricity grid in Britain, which the developers say is enough to power over 160,000 homes.

Phillips said: “The speed at which the new government is acting in relation to existing DCO applications in the planning system is welcome and shows it is intent on clearing the backlog of infrastructure planning applications Rachel Reeves has in her sights.”

Griffiths added: “These decisions send a clear signal of intent to the market that the UK is open to investment for major new renewables projects. The solar industry has been awaiting these decisions for quite a while. Now they have arrived, they will have a bearing on the projects that follow.”

In a speech on 8 July, new UK chancellor Rachel Reeves set out the Labour government’s plans for planning reform to enable housing and new infrastructure, including major renewable energy projects, to be delivered faster. Reeves said, among other things, that, together with deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who also holds the role of secretary of state for levelling-up, housing and communities, she would ask Miliband to “prioritise decisions on infrastructure projects that have been sitting unresolved for far too long”.

A core strand of the new Labour government’s plans for growth, set out prior to the recent UK general election, is its plans to decarbonise Britain’s electricity grid by 2030. Since coming to power, it has already lifted the de facto ban on onshore wind development in England and set up a new National Wealth Fund, which is designed to act as a catalyst for further private investment in clean energy and other growth-driving industries and technologies.

Another new major solar farm, the Cleve Hill Solar Park in Kent, moved closer to becoming operational recently after a planning inspector overturned a decision by a local authority that served to stall progress on development. The Cleve Hill Solar Park is expected to deliver capacity to generate 373MW of power. The project received development consent in 2020.

The Pinsent Masons team, which has provided specialist planning and property advice on the projects, includes Gareth Phillips, Richard Griffiths, Claire Brodrick, Alexis Coleman, Amy Stirling, and Matthew Fox.