800MW solar and battery park near Newark granted development consent
The Great North Road Solar and Biodiversity Park in Nottinghamshire was approved by the energy department on 27 October, on the same day as a second solar scheme at Frodsham in Cheshire.
By Daily Oracles News Team2 min read
A solar and battery scheme on the scale of a large power station has been given the go-ahead in Nottinghamshire. The Great North Road Solar and Biodiversity Park, on farmland north-west of Newark-on-Trent, can now be built with a maximum generating capacity of 800MW.
The decision was issued on Tuesday by Baroness Curran on behalf of the Energy Secretary. The Planning Inspectorate said the scheme was the 117th of 185 energy applications it has examined under the Planning Act 2008.
What has been approved
The consent covers three linked pieces of infrastructure: fields of photovoltaic panels, a battery energy storage system and the cabling and equipment needed to connect the site to the grid. The land lies west of the A1 and north of the A617. When the scheme was first named in 2024, its developer said it would connect at National Grid's Staythorpe substation.
The applicant is Elements Green Trent Limited. Its application reached the Planning Inspectorate on 27 June 2025, was accepted for examination on 22 July 2025 and went through a six-month public examination, during which residents, councils and statutory bodies submitted evidence. Newark and Sherwood District Council filed a local impact report as part of that process. The examining inspectors sent their recommendation to the Secretary of State on 28 July this year, and the decision followed three months later.
The developer has made habitat work part of the project's identity. It previously set out plans with the RSPB, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, Sherwood Forest Trust and Trent Rivers Trust for wetland, grassland and woodland areas alongside the panels.
A second scheme the same day
Tuesday also brought consent for Frodsham Solar in Cheshire, a smaller scheme described as having more than 50MW of capacity. Its application was submitted in May 2025 and became the 116th energy decision under the regime.
Projects of this size bypass local planning committees. Any generating station in England above 50MW is treated as a nationally significant infrastructure project, so the decision rests with the energy department after an examination run by the Inspectorate.
Six weeks for a legal challenge
For six weeks the decision can be challenged by judicial review in the High Court. If no challenge is brought, or one fails, the developer can start work on discharging the requirements attached to the consent, the detailed conditions that must be signed off before building starts.
Elements Green said in 2024 that construction could begin around 2027 if consent was granted, with the site generating roughly two years after that. The full decision letter, the inspectors' recommendation report and the examination evidence are published on the National Infrastructure Planning website under reference EN010162.
