Pegasus has been working with the Green Energy company, Ecotricity, to prepare a DCO application for a 400MW ground mounted solar park and 250MW energy storage system (ESS) on land at Heckington Fen, in North Kesteven District Council, Lincolnshire. This application has now been accepted and validated by the Planning Inspectorate. Over the coming 18 months this Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project will be considered by the Planning Inspectorate. The Environmental Impact Assessment team lead the co-ordination of the planning assessment work with our specialist teams assessing the landscape and visual effects and designing mitigation solutions in landscape design, transport implications, cultural heritage and archaeological impacts and socio economic effects of the energy park. Our Lands Team have worked with Ecotricity to secure the grid connection route from the main site to the existing substation over 5km away from the site. Pegasus Planning team will continue to work with Ecotricity through the determination process and the whole team will offer the necessary expert witness services as required.
This project has been incredibly interesting and at times challenging, as would be expected when assessing this possible environmental implications of renewable energy system of this scale, but working with Ecotricity and the involving the local community and their views in the design of the site has helped to develop a scheme which will offer the possibility of generating significant volumes of renewable energy. This is a clear aim of the Governments Energy Security Strategy (2022) which is seeking to increase in solar generation within the UK by 5 times by 2035. To achieve such a target would require 70GW of installed capacity by 2035 and the 400MW proposed at Heckington Fen would be a valuable contribution towards this.”
