The UK government has approved the 500 MW Tillbridge Solar power plant, a joint venture between sustainable developers Tribus Clean Energy and Recurrent Energy.
It’s the 17e clean energy Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), approved by the current Labor government and marking the 10th solar energy NSIP approved by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, which total 4.5 GW. The total number of approved solar NSIPs in Britain is 13.
Tribus and Recurrent say the solar generation site, located east of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, could support 1,250 jobs.
Luke Murray, CEO of Tribus Clean Energy, said: “As we move towards construction, we want to continue our work with local communities to ensure the project is delivered in a way that respects and works with the area.”
A planning application for the project was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate on 9 May 2024. The developers have a 500 MW import and export connection connected to National Grid’s Cottam substation in Nottinghamshire.
The development will cover a total area of approximately 1,400 hectares, of which 900 hectares would be where all solar panels and associated infrastructure would be located, leaving 500 hectares to be considered for environmental mitigation and improvement measures.
Lincolnshire, where the project has been approved, is an area where several large-scale solar PV projects are in planning and approval. This has given rise to some anti-solar sentiment, evidenced by the relatively high support for Reform UK, a political party that is making loud promises to reject renewable energy in favor of gas energy.
However, Chris Hewett, CEO of trade body Solar Energy UK, highlighted Tillbridge’s endorsement: “Solar farms are the cheapest source of electricity in Britain. The bigger they are, the more they benefit from economies of scale. Crucially, they produce clean, home-grown energy, displacing expensive and polluting natural gas from the electricity grid.”
The number of large-scale solar projects in planning continues to rise, with Solar Media Market Research recording July 2025 as having the highest submitted capacity in history, topping out at just over 3GWp.
As a solar analyst Josh Cornes wrote for Solar energy portal recentlythis has been largely helped by the enormous number of large-scale projects planned. Ten NSIPs entered the planning system in England that month, and a further three were submitted to the Energy Consents Unit (which must be approved by ministers as NSIP, due to a capacity of more than 50 MW) in Scotland.
