Site C is one of four sites that will be developed under the proposals. Image: Brockwell Solar and Storage.

UK developer Brockwell Solar and Storage, formerly RNA Energy, has opened statutory consultations for a proposed solar and battery storage development to the north-west of St Neots, on the border between Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.

The East Park development would see a ground-mounted solar photovoltaic generating station with a 400MW capacity and a 100MW battery energy storage system (BESS). The development will include an on-site substation and connect via an underground cable to the existing electricity transmission network at National Grid’s Eaton Socol substation.

If the proposals are approved, developers say construction would begin in 2027. This round of consultation follows a non-statutory consultation last year, feedback from which helped develop the proposals now being surveyed.

A key change to the plans, which are split across four sites and will cover 776 hectares, is the removal of what Brockwell has called a “significant parcel” of land from the proposed Site C. This is the result of archaeological survey work that identified the area as the probable site of a previously unknown small Roman town.

The BESS and its substation have also been moved in the second proposal; last year, it was proposed for an area within Site C, but in response to feedback and environmental surveys, a second option has been proposed that will place it in Site D. Both options are open to consultation.

Brockwell will create, enhance and maintain the surrounding local environment, aiming to deliver at least 10% biodiversity net gain. The developer is holding a series of public consultation events in the area, open for feedback until 29 October.

Local backlash to solar development

Like many large-scale solar developments pegged for development in the UK, East Park has faced significant local backlash. Concerns include the project scale, loss of high-quality farmland and the visual impact.

While the group campaigning against the development calls its scale “excessive and literally overwhelming”, the solar PV power plant’s generation capacity and land usage area are below Island Green Power’s recently approved Cottam Solar Project.

According to the consultation brochure, Brockwell understands concerns about the development, but states the importance of solar development for the legally binding net zero by 2050 target, as well as citing the Labour government’s target of tripling solar capacity by 2030.

It is widely expected that solar generation will not be located at sites of high quality agricultural land, but this too is a common erpoint that communities raise. Energy secretary Ed Miliband, who will ultimately decide the fate of East Park when it is presented to central government for a development consent order (DCO), has promised that the government will proceed “not on the basis of myth and false information, but on evidence”.

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