Three nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) with over 1.3GW collective renewable energy generation capacity were granted development consent orders (DCOs) on Friday (12 July).
The three solar-based projects, Gate Burton (Lincolnshire), Mallard Pass (Lincolnshire), and Sunnica (Suffolk/Cambridgeshire), were consented by the new secretary of state for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband.
Sunnica Energy Farm, a 500MW solar-plus-storage project by Sunnica, will see a large-scale solar farm and co-located battery storage asset built in Sunnica East and Sunnica West on the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire border.
It looks to include three 132kV private substations and a 132kV cable route that will need to be laid to connect the site to the Burwell National Grid substation.
Claire Coutinho, the secretary of state for the Conservative government, had delayed both Sunnica and Mallard Pass. The Mallard Pass project, which Windel Energy and Recurrent Energy are developing, had met opposition from the local community, including from the MP for Rutland and Melton, Alicia Kearns.
Mallard Pass is expected to generate about 350MW of solar energy and will cover 880 hectares of land on either side of the East Coast Main Line near Essendine, connecting to the grid via the existing Ryhall substation.
Gate Burton, a 500MW solar and energy storage park by Low Carbon has been proposed near EDF’s former coal-fired power station Cottam, which shut down its operations in 2019. The project aims to utilise the capacity availability in the area via the substation.
Since being elected on the 4 July, the Labour government has made a series of moves welcomed by the renewable energy industry. On 8 July, it removed the de-facto ban on onshore wind, which Miliband said had “held us back in our fight against climate change”.
Further, the secretary of state’s priorities for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) were laid out as he articulated his vision to transform the UK into a “clean energy superpower” by 2030, including the much-anticipated Great British Energy project, an investment vehicle designed to sponsor renewable energy innovation in the UK.
This article first appeared on our sister publication Solar Power Portal.