UK-based solar developer Boom Power has announced the closure of the examination period for its 400MW East Yorkshire Solar Farm.
A development consent order (DCO) decision will be reached by the end of May 2025, assuming no issues. Due to its scale, the solar power generation plant is classified as a nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP). Boom Power first shared project proposals at community engagement events held in October 2022.
If approved, the solar power generation plant would connect to the National Grid at the Drax substation in North Yorkshire.
Now that the six-month examination period has closed, the examining authority, which is appointed by the planning inspectorate, has three months to make its recommendations to the energy secretary. Secretary of state for energy security and net zero, Ed Miliband, will then have three months to decide whether to grant the DCO.
The solar PV development will cover a total land area of 1,445 hectares between the villages of Gribthorpe, Spaldington, Wressle, and the town of Howden in Yorkshire. The total land area includes buffer zones to include environmental mitigation in the form of planting and screening to retain the rural nature and view of the local area.
Boom Power will use tracker PV systems that, at maximum tilt, will be 3.5 metres high—public consultations raised the height of the prospective panels as an issue. According to the development website, the firm expects a total of three years’ construction time.
Mark Hogan, Boom Power founder, said he was “delighted” by the news. Likewise, the head of NSIP development for the company, Robert Smith, said he is “exceptionally proud of the quality and evolution” of the site’s design.
Smith explained: “The integration of the project into the landscape is always a challenge with larger schemes, however, new permissive paths, generous set off buffers of up to 120ft, and Public Right of Ways have been incorporated to minimise the visual impacts.”
In 2023, Boom Power confirmed that it would submit over 1GW of solar and battery energy storage projects for planning consent over the course of that year. In early October this year, the developer landed planning permission for a 300MW/660MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Wales.
At the end of May, the company closed its second public consultation into a proposed 237.5MW co-located solar and storage project in Fenwick, Doncaster, and plans to submit the application for a DCO by the end of 2024.
