The secretary of state has granted development consent for a co-located solar farm and battery project that could have a capacity of 500MW.
Longfield solar farm in Essex is the first DCO solar project developed by EDF Renewables in the UK. The application for consent was submitted in February 2022 and the decision to grant development consent was taken three weeks ahead of the statutory deadline.
The selection of the site, on land north east of Chelmsford and north of the A12 between Boreham and Hatfield Peverel, was driven by the need for an available grid connection, within 5km of existing electricity infrastructure with a single, contiguous land parcel exceeding 300ha nearby. Smaller multiple sites were not considered as they would not deliver the same generating capacity and are more challenging to deliver without additional impacts and costs. The location in Essex of the 400kV overhead line from Braintree Substation to the Rayleigh Substation was identified as having a capacity of up to 500MW to allow connection from a potential solar farm. Alongside the 500MW Grid Connection offer, the Applicant notes the site at Longfield is south facing, formed of large areas suitable for solar development, is owned by a single landowner who is agreeable to development, is not located within a designated landscape, has good connection routes, is located away from large conglomerations, and is outside of areas of protected habitats.