Gate Burton Energy Park

Low Carbon is developing proposals to build a new solar and energy storage park, along with the infrastructure needed to export the electricity it generates onto the national grid.

Gate Burton Energy Park is proposed as being built on land near Gate Burton in Lincolnshire. The electricity the proposed energy park generates will be exported via a connection into the existing national electricity transmission system at National Grid's Cottam substation in Nottinghamshire.

The project is anticipated as having a generation capacity of around 500 megawatts (MW). This is equivalent to providing enough clean energy to power over 160,000 homes and avoid more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.

UK Government has set ambitious targets to reach net zero by 2050. The recently published Energy Strategy detailed the aim to increase the UK's solar capacity five-fold by 2035 - equivalent to around 70 gigawatts (GW) total generation capacity. Gate Burton Energy Park would deliver a significant level of renewable energy generation and make a vital contribution to supporting our transition to a low carbon energy system while securing the energy needs of Great Britain.

The amount of electricity Gate Burton Energy Park could generate exceeds 50MW. It 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. Subject to achieving consent, construction would start no earlier than 2025.

Where we are now

The Planning Inspectorate’s examination on Gate Burton Energy Park closed on 4 January 2024. There is now three months in which the Planning Inspectorate will write its report and make a recommendation to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State then has a further three months to make a final decision.

All the documents produced for our DCO application are available here on the Planning Inspectorate’s website or here on our website.

Survey work

To develop our proposals for Gate Burton Energy Park we are carrying out a variety of environmental and engineering surveys to identify the most appropriate areas of the site for development, along with the route an electrical connection from the energy park to Cottam substation could follow.

You may notice the presence of our teams carrying out various ecological and geophysical surveys in the area. To ensure we are engaging with the relevant individuals as our proposals evolve, we have appointed Gateley Hamer to act on our behalf and speak with landowners to confirm about their interests in land and details of any occupiers.

Contact us

You can contact our Community Relations team by:

You can also use the contact form here.

Grid Connection Cottam

Project location

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