Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has completed construction and started commercial operations of the 373MW Cleve Hill Solar Park, now the largest operational in the UK.
Cleve Hill, located in Kent, is now exporting at 100% of its capacity. Construction of the solar project began in 2023, and Quinbrook said construction is now underway on a 150MW co-located battery energy storage system (BESS).
On completion of the BESS, Cleve Hill will go from the largest solar plant in the UK to the largest co-located solar plus storage project constructed in the UK. According to Quinbrook, during the commissioning phase in May, electricity exports from Cleve Hill peaked at a level equivalent to 0.7% of the UK’s national power demand.
Cleve Hill’s capacity is four times higher than that of the next largest operational solar power plant in the UK, the Llanwern solar farm in Newport, Wales, with a capacity of 49.9MW.
The solar and storage plant was the first solar power project to be consented as a nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP) and is supported by the largest solar + BESS project financing undertaken in the UK.
It was also the first solar NSIP to be awarded a Contract for Difference (CfD) in round 4 of the auction (AR4), and benefits from the largest corporate power purchase agreement (cPPA) executed in the UK to date, signed with supermarket chain Tesco PLC.
According to Quinbrook’s managing director and UK regional leader, Keith Gains, Cleve Hill “sets a benchmark for large-scale solar projects to help decarbonise the UK power system and demonstrates how investing in the infrastructure needed to transition the UK to clean energy can support local communities and create new jobs”.
Director of Quinbrook Rosalind Smith, speaking in a webinar hosted by Solar Power Portal, described taking on so many ‘firsts’ with Cleve Hill as “the experience of a lifetime”.
Maxwell will speak later today (1 July) at the UK Solar Summit 2025 in London, on the panel ‘NSIP Nation: Lessons from the Frontlines of Energy Infrastructure’. Our rolling coverage of the event will be updated throughout the day.
