The Planning Inspectorate has accepted a planning application from independent renewable energy company RES for a 400MW solar power plant co-located with 200MW energy storage.
The Nottinghamshire Steeple Renewables Project is located near the decommissioned West Burton Power Station and will use existing grid capacity and infrastructure in the area.
The Steeple Renewables Project will comprise up to 400MW of solar energy generation and a 200MW battery energy storage system (BESS). Having been accepted, the development is in the pre-examination stage of the development consent order (DCO) process.
Projects with a generating capacity over 100MW (revised up from 50MW) are classed as nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) and need to obtain a DCO from the energy minister, rather than being approved at the local authority level.
RES’ DCO project manager Will Bridges said the developer is grateful for the feedback it received during the consultation process and outlined some of the ways the company responded.
He said: “We have made substantial changes to our original proposals including the reduction in the area of land used for solar panels and associated infrastructure and increasing buffers between residential properties and the panels.”
Although consultation is now closed, interested parties can share their views on the project with the Planning Inspectorate while it is in the pre-examination phase.
The examining authority will then have six months to examine the application and review any comments before making its recommendation to the secretary of state for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband. Miliband’s decision is not expected until mid-to-late 2026.
RES has been in the spotlight this week, after it won a case brought against its Longhedge Solar Farm; the details of this were explained by Melanie Grimshaw, a partner, and Ryan Williams, an associate, at national law firm Mills & Reeve LLP in a contributed blog on Wednesday.
Yesterday, the developer submitted a planning application to the Scottish government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU) for a 150MW BESS to be located in East Ayrshire, the second BESS of this size to be put forward by RES in Scotland in as many months.
Next week, Solar Power Portal will host a webinar Making large scale solar worth it: Delivering the UK’s first solar NSIP, on 19 June. Rosalind Smith Maxwell, director of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, the company behind the UK’s first solar NSIP, Cleve Hill, will speak to the key driving factors behind the successful financing of the UK’s Cleve Hill solar-plus-storage project, an important proof-of-concept for large-scale renewable projects in the UK. Sign up to attend here.
Maxwell will also speak at our publisher Solar Media’s UK Solar Summit 2025 as part of the Clean Power 2030 Summits. Along with the Wind Power Finance & Investment Summit and Green Hydrogen Summit, these bring together the entire value chain to collaborate on scaling renewable deployment, fostering innovation, and securing the investment needed to achieve this once-in-a-generation transition.
