North East Lincolnshire Council has given consent for a solar farm and battery storage project that will provide clean, green energy to the equivalent of up to 17,694 new homes. The 43.7MW solar farm and 10MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) facility will be located to the north-west of Waltham, North East Lincolnshire. The renewable energy project comes with a package of landscape, ecological and biodiversity benefits and has a community benefit fund of over £87,000.
Renewable Connections, one of the UK’s leading solar and battery developers, submitted the application to the Council in November 2023, having undertaken extensive consultation with the community earlier that year. Bradley Road Solar Farm was unanimously approved following a recommendation for approval by North East Lincolnshire Council’s planning officers.
The approval marks Renewable Connections, 20th project consent since 2021. The company has achieved consent for low carbon energy projects spanning solar, battery and hydrogen technologies.
Philip Hale, Chief Operations Officer at Renewable Connections said: “North East Lincolnshire Council and local elected members have been incredibly proactive, declaring their own climate emergency in September 2019 and launching their own Carbon Roadmap which sets out ambitious carbon neutral goals. We are delighted that the approval of the Bradley Road solar and battery project will support the area’s ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050, delivering green electricity to the equivalent of over 17,000 homes in the first year of generation.
He added: “We are extremely proud that this project marks our twentieth consecutive project consent, bringing our overall total of consented projects to over 885MW. This is a huge achievement that will make a significant contribution to the UK’s ambitious net zero ambitions.”
Renewable Connections undertook extensive community engagement as part of the projects development process, writing to over 1,800 local stakeholders, hosting a public consultation event, consulting statutory and political stakeholders. As a result of the feedback received a number of design changes were made to the project including a reduction in site area. The solar farm has been designed to allow a raft of landscape, ecological and biodiversity benefits including additional wildflower planting, increased provision of species rich grassland, skylark mitigation measures, and over 2,000m of hedgerow added to bolster screening and ecological enhancements. Public rights of way will be fully maintained during construction and operation of the development.
Construction of the solar farm will involve the installation of photovoltaic (PV) panels, which convert sunlight directly into renewable electricity and the battery energy storage system.
For more information go to: www.bradleyroadsolar.co.uk
