Matthew Pennycook, the minister who approved the plans on behalf of the Secretary of State, has been vocal in his support of solar development in the UK. Image: Cero Generation / Enso Energy.

The minister of state, Matthew Pennycook, has granted planning permission for a 23MW solar development with 57MW of battery storage to be installed in Warwickshire.

Set to be operational for 40 years, a revised application was submitted for the solar and storage project by Enso Green Holdings in October 2022. Enso energy is a renewable energy developer that recently co-developed the first solar and storage project to be connected at a transmission level.

Pennycook, the minister who approved the plans on behalf of the secretary of state, has been vocal in his support of solar development in the UK.

The Warwickshire project, Honiley Road Solar Farm, had been approved by the Warwickshire District Council planning committee in July 2023 but was ‘called in’ by the then-secretary of state for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in February this year.

Jeremy Wright, Conservative MP for Kenilworth and Southam, wrote that the secretary of state should refuse the application, citing green belt concerns. An inspector visited the site on 20 February.

According to the government website, the secretary of state can ‘call in’ – that is to say, take over – planning applications rather than letting the local authority decide if the application “conflicts with national policy in important ways” or is nationally significant.

Notably, since the Labour government took power, the department has been renamed the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and is led by a new secretary of state, Angela Reyner.

The 58-acre development will be located in the Green Belt, meaning that ‘very special circumstances’ (VSCs) had to be proved to grant permission. It is acknowledged that impact on the Green Belt carries ‘substantial weight’ against the plans.

However, the potential harm to the Green Belt is “clearly” outweighed by other considerations and, as such, VSCs exist.

What is interesting about the Honiley Road facility is that, despite its scale, it did not qualify as a nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP) because of its relatively low solar generation capacity, which is below the minimum NSIP threshold of 50MW.

The need for grid flexibility

With wind and solar projects accelerating under Labour’s climate plans, increased flexibility will be needed to prevent grid curtailment. Recent Solar Media market research showed that the UK’s energy storage market is experiencing substantial growth, as is storage co-located with solar: this capacity is expected to increase to over 1GWh by the end of 2024.

Adding weight to the increased role of battery storage are recently implemented amendments to the Capacity Market Rules that will support battery participation in the Capacity Market (CM).

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