Huge cross-county solar farm approved

Plans for one of the largest solar farms in the UK, which will straddle the border between Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, have been approved.

The One Earth solar farm is set to cover 1,600 hectares (3,954 acres) either side of the River Trent south of Dunham-on-Trent, near East Markham in Nottinghamshire.

Under the developers' proposals, the project will have the capacity to generate up to 740 megawatts (MW) of electricity - enough to power the equivalent of 200,000 homes.

An application was submitted to the government earlier this year by PS Renewables and Danish energy company Ørsted, and the Planning Inspectorate confirmed the project had been granted development consent on Wednesday.

Currently mostly farmland, One Earth is set to sit across parts of Bassetlaw, Newark and Sherwood and West Lindsey district council areas.

It comes after approval was given in April for Springwell Solar Farm, between Lincoln and Sleaford, which will cover 1,280 hectares (3,163 acres) and power 180,000 homes.

The decision for the cross-county solar farm was made a week after ministers backed two other large solar farms – Pear Tree Hill in East Yorkshire and Dean Moor in West Cumbria.

This means the government has now approved 30 nationally significant clean energy projects since coming to power in July 2024, which it says will be enough to power the equivalent of more than 19 million homes.

The solar panels will use a grid connection at the decommissioned High Marnham power station in Nottinghamshire.

Categorised as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, the application was referred up to central government rather than left to local councils.

Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, said: "The only way to have energy security is if we take a pro-growth approach to building more clean energy in Britain."

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