UK-based renewables developer Elements Green has announced it will make its 800MW solar generation plant in Newark, Nottinghamshire, a “biodiversity haven”.
The developer is partnering with the RSPB, Sherwood Forest Trust, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and the Trent Rivers Trust to ensure nature benefits from the Great North Road Solar Park. The project will be renamed ‘Great North Road Solar and Biodiversity Park’ to reflect Elements Green’s commitment to improving the local environment.
UK project director Mark Noone said: “Our commitment will see 850 acres of land dedicated solely to positive ecological management, which is an area more than twice the size of Sherwood Forest Center Parcs.
“It will consist of wetlands, grassland, and other environmentally focused land management projects. Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust will ensure these bring the greatest benefits to wildlife, whilst Trent Rivers Trust will be central to work on wetlands.”
Plans also include planting 50,000 new trees, with the RSPB aiding the design of new woodland and grassland habitats.
Charlotte Martin-Taylor, Head of Business Conservation Advice at the RSPB, said the business conservation parentship was a chance to unite and “address the urgent biodiversity and climate crises”.
Hailing the partnership, which is the first of its kind in the solar sector, chief executive of trade association Solar Energy UK Chris Hewett said: “There is now copious evidence of the biodiversity benefits that solar farms can bring, as demonstrated in our annual Solar Habitat ecological monitoring reports. Nevertheless, surveys have shown that the public consider impacts on nature to be one of their greatest concerns about the sector. This groundbreaking collaboration should go some way to alleviating such worries.”
The development is currently still in the pre-application stage, having closed its first consultation stage in February this year after six weeks of community feedback and meetings. According to Elements Green, communities who were consulted on the original proposals in early 2024 expressed a strong desire to protect and enhance their natural environment.
The project would be located northwest of Newark-on-Trent, and the developer has already secured a grid connection to National Grid’s existing substation at Staythorpe, Nottinghamshire.
Elements Green’s solar NSIP status
At first inception, Elements Green stated that it expected the development process for Great North Road Solar Park, involving a development consent order (DCO) submission and examination, would take between two and three years. Subject to achieving consent, construction could begin around 2027, with the park becoming operational two years later.
When the first consultation round launched, Solar Power Portal reported that the DCO process might impede the project’s progress, with the previous government taking up to 4.3 years to progress nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs).
While the Conservative party was in power, decisions on several major solar NSIPs were delayed, but the new government has overseen several positive steps for the sector since coming to power.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband granted DCOs for three solar NSIPS within days of being in power, both the Sunnica and Mallard Pass solar projects that Coutinho had pushed back on.
The 600MW Cottam Solar Project, being developed by Island Green Power, was granted a DCO in September, adding up to a total seven NSIPs with a combined capacity of just under 2,900MW to have secured consent. A total of 24 other NSIP solar farms are in the pre-application stage, with three under examination and decisions on another two—Ecotricity’s Heckington Fen and Island Green Power’s West Burton project—expected in the coming weeks.
