Peartree Hill Solar Farm Order 2026 explained

If you have ever tried to read a development consent order, you will know they are written more like a machine manual than a public explanation. So let’s translate this one. On 2 July 2026, the Government made the Peartree Hill Solar Farm Order 2026, and it came into force on 23 July 2026. In simple terms, it gives RWE Renewables UK Solar and Storage Limited the legal go-ahead to build, operate, maintain and later remove a major solar and battery project on land east of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire. According to the statutory instrument itself, this is not just a planning yes. It is a full legal framework. It deals with what can be built, where it can go, how roads and paths can be changed, what land can be used, when compensation may be due and what checks still apply before work starts. That is why the document runs for pages and pages: it is trying to turn a very large energy project into something the law can manage in detail.

The first big lesson is how a project like this gets approved. Under the Planning Act 2008, very large energy schemes are treated as nationally significant infrastructure projects. In this case, the project includes a ground-mounted solar generating station with a gross electrical output of more than 50 megawatts, which is the threshold that pushes it into the development consent order system rather than ordinary local planning alone. **What this means:** a development consent order, often shortened to DCO, is a kind of all-in-one permission. The Secretary of State considers the application after an examination process, an Examining Authority produces a report and recommendation, and environmental information has to be taken into account before a decision is made. The Order says that happened here. So when you read this document, you are looking at both a planning approval and a rulebook for how the approved scheme may be delivered.

What has actually been approved is wider than a field of solar panels. The Order covers the solar arrays themselves across several land areas, a battery energy storage system, internal and external electrical cables, fencing, gates, access tracks, CCTV and monitoring kit, planting and habitat works, temporary construction compounds, and two on-site substations. It also allows a cable connection up to 132 kilovolts and works within the National Grid Creyke Beck substation to connect the scheme into the wider electricity network. That matters because big energy projects are never just the generation equipment you can see from a road. They also need the hidden pieces that make the site usable: drainage, access, crossing points, signage, communications equipment, control buildings, fire safety systems, welfare space for workers and green areas that are meant to soften or compensate for the project’s effects. The Order even allows permissive paths, which are routes with restricted public access created within the site boundary.

The part many readers will look for straight away is compulsory purchase. The Order gives the undertaker powers to acquire land, acquire rights over land, impose restrictive covenants and take temporary possession of some land where that is needed for the authorised development. It can also survey land, carry out investigations, enter for protective works to buildings, use subsoil only in some cases and override certain private rights if those rights would otherwise block the project. **What this means:** compulsory purchase does not mean the developer can simply take whatever it wants without conditions. The Order puts limits around those powers. There is a time limit of five years from the making of the Order for key compulsory acquisition steps. Temporary possession cannot be used for any house or garden belonging to a house, or an occupied non-house building. Compensation is built in across the document. The Order also says the undertaker must have a guarantee or another approved form of security in place before using a range of land powers, so there is financial backing for compensation claims if they arise.

For people living nearby, the most visible effects may come from roads, paths and access rather than from the panels themselves. The Order allows street works, changes to the layout of streets, temporary closures, diversions and restrictions on roads and public rights of way, and temporary traffic measures such as signals, lower speed limits and managed turning movements. It also allows access works from streets and use of private roads for construction and maintenance, with compensation where loss or damage is caused. But this is not an unrestricted pass. The undertaker often has to consult the street authority or get written consent first. It must provide reasonable access for pedestrians going to or from affected premises if closure would otherwise cut that off. In several places the Order includes a 28-day deemed consent rule, but only if the application clearly states that the rule applies. That might sound like a dry detail, yet it shows how these Orders try to balance two competing pressures: keeping major projects moving while still giving public bodies a formal chance to respond.

Another important point is that the Order is not a blank cheque to start digging straight away. Before different parts of the project can begin, the local planning authority still has to approve a long list of details. These include layout, scale, finished ground levels, external appearance, surfacing, access arrangements, drainage, a construction environmental management plan, a construction traffic management plan, a soil management plan, a site waste plan, archaeology arrangements, fencing details, noise controls and an operational environmental management plan. The battery element has extra checks too. Any part containing the battery energy storage system cannot start until a battery safety management plan has been approved, after consultation with Humberside Fire and Rescue Service and the Environment Agency. The ecology side is also striking. The Order requires a LEMP, the scheme’s ecology and planting plan, and says it must show at least 55% biodiversity net gain for area habitat units, 35% for hedgerow units and 10% for watercourse units using Defra’s February 2024 metric or another agreed method. If you are learning how planning law works, this is a good example of approval now, detail later.

The Order also spends a lot of time protecting other people’s systems. That includes drainage authorities, the Environment Agency, utility companies, communications operators, National Gas, National Grid Electricity Transmission, Network Rail and Northern Powergrid. In plain English, the project cannot simply plough through existing pipes, cables, rail interests, flood assets or grid infrastructure. In many cases, apparatus cannot be acquired except by agreement, alternative apparatus must be provided first, detailed plans must be submitted in advance and the undertaker has to cover reasonable costs and damage. There are also protections for special land. The Secretary of State says the special category land affected by the Order, including parts of Figham Common, will be no less advantageous when burdened by the new rights or restrictive covenants than it was before. That is legal language with a very practical purpose: common land and rights over it get extra scrutiny. The Order even tells the undertaker to try to avoid clashes with nearby solar schemes and to co-ordinate with National Grid work connected to the Wanlass Beck project.

The final lesson is about time. This project is approved, but it is not approved forever in a vague way. The authorised development must begin within five years of the Order coming into force on 23 July 2026. The site must then be decommissioned no later than 40 years after final commissioning, and a decommissioning environmental management plan must be submitted before that process begins unless another arrangement is agreed. So the law is thinking not just about construction, but also about the long tail of operation and the end of the project’s life. If you want the shortest possible reading of the Order, it is this: the Government has approved a large solar and battery scheme near Beverley, but only inside a dense web of conditions, approvals, land powers, compensation rules and protections for everyone else who already uses the area. That is how the energy transition often looks in practice. Big national goals are translated into very local rules. And if you want to follow the paper trail more closely, the note to the Order says the certified plans and book of reference can be inspected free of charge at Beverley Library during normal working hours.