Island Green Power is seeking public opinion on preliminary plans for a nationally significant solar and storage project in South Norfolk.
The renewable energy developer has launched a public consultation on early-stage proposals for a 500MW solar development combined with a battery energy storage system (BESS) that could have an output of up to 500MW.
The East Pye Solar project will be located on 1,100 hectares of land south of Norwich and north of Harleston. Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels would be installed at two points within this area, approximately 4 miles apart. The smaller of the two, south of Great Moulton, will also be the site of the BESS part of the project, which Island Green says will have a capacity of up to 500 MW.
Due to its generation capacity, East Pye Solar is considered a Nationally Important Infrastructure Project (NSIP). As part of the application process for the utility-scale development, Island Green will conduct various stages of public consultation before submitting proposals for a Development Consent Order (DCO), which must be approved by the Energy Secretary for the project to proceed.
If granted, the solar PV power plant would connect to the National Grid via a new substation and the existing 400kV overhead line running between Norwich Main and Bramford substations.
Samantha Jones, project development manager for East Pye Solar, said: “We are committed to developing our proposals with the local community and are pleased to launch the first phase of our consultation, which will run until Friday 6 December 2024.
“The feedback we receive will help us develop our proposals so that the final designs meet the ambition of the project and deliver benefits to the local environment – from improving the environment to providing direct funding for important causes.”
A DCO application is expected to be submitted in winter 2025. The operational life of the project is expected to be 60 years and Island Green says that at the end of that period a decommissioning plan will be adopted, returning the site to its original use.
The non-statutory consultation comes after Island Green unveiled plans for the development in early September, just a week after Energy Minister Ed Miliband granted the developer a DCO for the 600MW Cottam Solar Project.
The 600MW development will consist of four ground-mounted solar PV generating stations in West Lindsay, Lincolnshire, four on-site substations and a BESS spread across four separate sites, covering a total area of 1,270 hectares.
A total of seven NSIPs with a combined capacity of just under 2,900 MW have now been authorized since Labor came to power, including the three NSIPs that were granted DCOs shortly after the general election. A total of 24 other NSIP solar farms are in the pre-application phase, including another Island Green development in West Burton.
A decision on another project, Ecotricity’s Heckington Fen solar development, was now roughly expected but was instead postponed until 2025 after developers requested more time to negotiate with the site’s landowners, the Crown Estate and the Duchy of Lancaster.
