Evolution Power has successfully demonstrated the rejection of the planning state for a storage proposal in Solar Plus in North Hertfordshire.
The Wandon End Solar Project combines 49.9 MW capacity for generating solar energy with a co-located battery Energy Storage System (Bess), the capacity of which has not yet revealed. Of the 49.9 MW of export and import capacity for which the project has been approved, 35 MW will be used to deliver the national electricity network, while the remaining capacity will be reserved for export to local electricity users with high demand.
The planning control committee of North Hertfordshire Council refused the building permit for the original proposal of Evolution Power in July 2024, after 400 objections submitted by local residents and a meeting of the planning committee described as “noisy”. Permission was refused because the majority of the planning committee stated that the proposals represent an inappropriate planning in the field of green belt.
However, the refusal was destroyed on appeal in the planning inspection, which instead defined the proposed 45-hecatre site as being on the country of “Gray Belt”-a land classification defined in the planning policy a few months after the original planning application was rejected. The Gray Belt Land -classification, defined in December 2024, offers fewer limiting provisions for planning approval than Green Belt -Land, and refers to land in the green belt that is considered underhanded, of poor environmental quality, or previously developed.
While both parties dispute whether the country should be classified as Gray Belt Land for the Wandon End Solar Project, concluded in the professional document, planning inspector Alison Partington that would be the proposed country of Gray Riemland and therefore the proposals of Evolution Power would not be an inappropriate development in this area.
In addition, Partington emphasized various other important characteristics of the schedule that led to the decision to grant the approval of the planning, including the inclusive of co-lured battery storage, to which it gave “significant weight”, as well as the use of the proposal of an available grid connection, which means that it would be able to provide energy “.
Matthew Sharpe, senior director at Planning and Development Advisory Agency Quod, served as the planning and Green Belt- witness during the professional process. In a message about LinkedIn, he noted that this professional decision will serve as a useful precedent for future interpretations of the definition of Gray Belt -land, adding that he “is delighted for the Evolution Power team, and I look forward to the site that comes to the fore and contributes to the urgent renewable energy needs of the VK.”
Conor McNally, director of Evolution Power, said that the company is delighted to have received the planning state for the development, and added: “As a company, we have made the decision to focus large transmission -connected projects and we have worked extensively with multiple landowners in the past four years to contract the thousands of hectare of land that are required for these projects.”
Evolution Power is currently waiting for a final planning decision on another large Zonne -Plus storage development, the Stonestreet green solar farm and energy storage Project. This development, which has a capacity of solar generation of 165 MW and 99.9 MW export capacity, was accepted in July last year for research under the National Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime; A definitive decision about if an order for a development allocation is granted for the project is expected in November 2025.
