Four big English solar-and-battery sites win consent in a single month

Four utility-scale solar projects, all paired with batteries, received development consent in October through England's NSIP planning route.

Four utility-scale solar projects in England were granted planning permission in October 2026 under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) process, and all four include battery storage. Green Hill Solar Farm received its development consent order on 8 October, Steeple Renewables on 9 October, and Great North Road Solar and Biodiversity Park and Frodsham Solar on 27 October.

The largest is Great North Road, from Elements Green, northwest of Newark on Trent: 1.12 GW DC of solar, an 800 MW grid connection and a co-located 440 MW/880 MWh battery. Steeple, in Nottinghamshire, is a RES project of 450 MW with about 150 MW of battery output, expected to reuse grid capacity freed by the decommissioned West Burton power station. Green Hill, from Island Green Power north of Northampton, is expected at up to 500 MW. Frodsham, from Cubico near Chester, is around 150 MW, with a connection to supply up to 100 MW.

Why it matters: pairing batteries with solar lets a site shift midday output into the evening, so cheap daytime generation becomes more useful to the grid. Reusing a retired power station's connection also shortens one of the slowest steps in building new capacity. Solar projects have so far been approved every time in the NSIP pipeline, which covers English solar above 100 MW, so the route looks dependable for developers.

Watch for construction starts and grid timelines. Consent is not construction. Cleve Hill, the first NSIP solar approval in 2020, only began commercial operation in July 2025. Note also that the headline's "nearly 2 GW" is not itemised; the listed capacities sum to roughly 2.2 GW, and some are DC or approximate figures.

Source: pv magazine