Brockwell Energy is developing plans for East Park Energy, a new solar farm and energy storage project northwest of St Neots, near the border of Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.
Once built, the project would be capable of generating up to 400 megawatts of clean energy – enough to power approximately 108,00 homes. This is equivalent to more than the total number of homes in Bedford, or over 250,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions saved each year. The proposal also includes a 100-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS) and an on-site substation connected via underground cables to the electricity transmission network at National Grid’s Eaton Socon substation. We will also deliver public right of way improvements, new green infrastructure, biodiversity net gains and funding for community benefit as part of the project.
The UK Government has recently unveiled the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, aiming to achieve a clean power system by 2030. This initiative focuses on harnessing Britain's natural resources to protect consumers from volatile global energy markets, reduce emissions, improve energy security, and lower energy bills. Based on the current project programme, we are on track for East Park Energy to support these aspirations.
We recently concluded statutory consultation for the project. Between September and October 2024, we wrote to community members and statutory consultees asking for feedback on the proposed layout, grid connection, construction methodology, environmental plans, and community benefit fund. We attended five in-person events in the community surrounding the project site and received over 800 written feedback submissions.
The proposal that we presented at statutory consultation had changed since we first brought it to the community. One of the most significant changes was the removal of a large area of proposed development following the discovery of remnants of a small Roman town near Great Staughton, uncovered during early survey work. This is an exciting discovery for the project team, the community and the broader archaeological field and we are committed to undertaking further field work to learn more about the site. We have also registered the find as a Scheduled Monument, offering protection from future development. This discovery led us to identify and present an alternative location for the BESS and substation towards Hail Weston, on which we have asked for community and technical feedback.
A key topic that we are working on through the planning application is the provision of natural landscaping and vegetation to achieve a net gain in site’s current biodiversity. We are committed to exceeding new government requirements of 10% biodiversity net gain, and this will be achieved with the addition 197 hectares (ha) of species-diverse grassland, 464 ha of neutral grassland for grazing pasture, 13 ha of native species woodland, 17km of native species hedgerow, and 350 individual hedgerow trees.
Our next steps are to finish reviewing all the feedback received during statutory consultation before updating our proposal for submission to the national Planning Inspectorate. We will continue liaising with statutory consultees during this process and will share the outcomes of what the community told us and how we responded prior to submission.
We are currently working to a programme of submitting the application in Summer 2025, enabling a decision from the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero in Autumn 2026 and construction to commence in 2027 should the project be approved. The project would take around 30 months to build.