Energy secretary Ed Miliband has given the government’s consent for the construction of three nationally-significant solar farms in the east of England.
Low Carbon’s Gate Burton in Lincolnshire, Sunnica on the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire border and Mallard Pass, straddling the East Coast Mainline railway in Lincolnshire and Rutland, all received consent on Friday.
The capacities of Sunnica and Gate Burton will both amount to 500MW, while that of Mallard Pass will come to 350MW. Their collective capacity is about two thirds of the amount of solar energy installed on rooftops and on the ground last year, put at 1.9GW by a leading collector of UK solar statistics.
Trade body Solar Energy UK has welcomed the projects’ approval as a major step in decarbonising UK power, strengthening energy security, and pushing down bills on the road to Net Zero.
“Solar Energy UK is delighted that the new Secretary of State has just approved three nationally significant solar farms, in his first week in office”, said Chris Hewett, chief executive of the lobbying group. “This is just the kind of clear leadership that will increase investor confidence and show that Britain is serious about tackling the climate emergency with the urgency that is needed,”
Another large-scale solar farm, the 373MW Cleve Hill project in Kent, is currently being built, while the 420MW Longfield project in Hertfordshire received consent last year.
Pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade welcomed the minister’s decisions.
CEO Sam Richards declared: “When Rachel Reeves outlined a series of major planning reforms just days after taking office designed to get Britain building, I said if Keir Starmer’s government was really committed to hitting the ground running then the new energy secretary should give the green light to a host of shovel ready solar farms.
“I am delighted Ed Miliband has done what his predecessor failed to do”.
Still awaiting a planning adjudication is Britain’s biggest proposed PV farm to date, the giant 1,000 hectare Botley West plan of Photovolt Development Partners, owned by German entrepreneur Peter Gerstmann.
Over ten weeks of last winter the firm first consulted the public and landowners on and close to the Blenheim Estate, ranging from Cumnor & Botley southwest of Oxford, ten miles north as far as Woodstock & Wootton.
The plans have sparked protests at the project’s size. Following changes to its boundaries – see photo- , Botley West is currently in a second phase of public comment, ending on 28 July.
Having already in its 19 years delivered solar farms in Europe and Japan, PVDP say Botley West will by 2027 be mostly hidden by hedges, including newly planted ones.
This Thursday, Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, hosts a security summit attended by Europe’s heads of government. New premier Kier Starmer is expected to welcome leaders including Volodymyr Zhelenskiy of Ukraine, Olaf Scholz and French president Emmanuel Macron at the continent’s fourth European Political Community conference.
