Low Carbon is developing proposals to build a new solar and battery storage park on land to the east of Sleaford, Lincolnshire.
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Introducing the Project
Welcome to Beacon Fen Energy Park. Low Carbon is developing proposals to build a new solar and battery storage park on land to the east of Sleaford, Lincolnshire. The site is to the north of Heckington and would connect into Bicker Fen substation.
If given the go ahead, Beacon Fen Energy Park has the potential to power approximately 130,000 homes and avoid up to 72,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually.
The plans include building the infrastructure needed to export the electricity the energy park would generate into the national grid. This would be via the nearby Bicker Fen substation.
With the UK Government’s target to reach Net Zero by 2050, its aim is to increase the nation’s solar capacity fivefold by 2035. Beacon Fen Energy Park would deliver a vital contribution towards this ambitious target.
The amount of electricity Beacon Fen Energy Park could generate will exceed 50MW and is therefore classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP).
This requires us to submit an application for a Development Consent Order (DCO) to the Planning Inspectorate which, in the case of energy-related development, acts on behalf of the Secretary of State at the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero. The decision on whether to grant final consent for Beacon Fen Energy Park would be made by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Subject to achieving consent, construction is estimated to start from 2026/2027 onwards.
Where we are now
We are now in the process of preparing to submit our Development Consent Order (DCO) application to the Planning Inspectorate which is planned for March 2025.
We will continue to refine the cable route and the route of the proposed access road before finalising the DCO submission. There are more details of the next phase of the planning process in the following newsletter.
Please find previous updates from the project below
On Monday 16 December 2024 we commenced an additional targeted consultation exercise regarding some small changes to how we may construct the project, limited to a handful of locations. The targeted consultation closed on Sunday 19 January 2025.
In early 2024 we identified minor additional areas of land, which may be required to facilitate access to the project site which concluded in March 2024.
The statutory consultation of Beacon Fen Energy Park opened on 22 January 2024 and ran for six weeks. It included a series of in-person events and webinars for stakeholders and communities to attend to find out more about the project and provide their feedback. For further details, including webinar recordings, please click here.
We submitted our Environmental Impact Assessment scoping request to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) on 26 May 2023. You can view the subsequent Scoping Opinion here.
Our early (non-statutory) consultation started on 15 May 2023 and closed on 18 June 2023, involving in person events and online webinars to allow us to meet local residents, occupiers, businesses and landowners and introduce our early proposals. You can find out more information on our consultation page and view our recorded webinars too.
Following the initial early (non-statutory) consultation and the community and stakeholder feedback received, we withdrew a previously proposed second parcel of land – Beacon Fen South – from our Development Consent Order (DCO) application in July 2023. We will be progressing with solar and battery storage development at Beacon Fen North – now known as Beacon Fen Energy Park.
In November 2023, we published the Statement of Community Consultation (SoCC) outlining how Low Carbon intended to consult with local communities about the proposed project during its upcoming statutory consultation, the proposed timescales for consultation and how consultees could respond to, and shape, the proposed development. Please click here to view the document. For further information about the SoCC, please visit our news article here.
Ongoing survey work
To develop our proposals for Beacon Fen Energy Park we have carried out a variety of environmental and engineering surveys to identify the most appropriate areas of the site for development. Similarly, work was undertaken to determine the most appropriate route to connect Beacon Fen Energy Park to Bicker Fen substation.
To ensure we are engaging with the relevant individuals as our project evolves, we have appointed Ardent Management to act on our behalf and speak with landowners to confirm their interests in the land and details of any occupiers.
Archaeological investigations on the main site were undertaken in the form of trial trenching in Winter 2023/24. This work involves the use of excavators to dig a number of trenches across the site in order to understand the potential for archaeological remains. The locations of the trenches were informed by the Historic Environment Record and previous work included a geophysical survey, a review of aerial photography and LiDAR data. This process was agreed with local authority archaeologists. Measures were taken to ensure the protection of ecology on site during the trenching works. The work was closely supervised by experienced field archaeologists who examined and recorded any archaeology that was found. Local authority archaeologists also visited the site to review the work as it was being undertaken.
We similarly undertook a programme of targeted trial trenching on the bespoke access road in September 2024.
