{"id":682024,"date":"2026-07-09T09:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682024\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T09:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:16:07","slug":"miliband-overrules-his-own-inspectors-to-approve-britains-second-largest-solar-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682024\/","title":{"rendered":"Miliband overrules his own inspectors to approve Britain\u2019s second-largest solar farm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed Miliband has approved Britain\u2019s second-largest solar farm after overruling opposition from his own inspectors.<\/p>\n

The Energy Secretary on Wednesday said he had granted planning permission to the One Earth Solar Farm development to be built on prime farmland across Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.<\/p>\n

It comes despite a recommendation to block the development from Mr Miliband\u2019s own planning inspectors.<\/p>\n

They warned that the scheme would be destructive for the environment, would put historic structures at risk, damage the health and well-being of local people and cause transport problems.<\/p>\n

The controversial decision marks the third large solar farm approved by Mr Miliband in recent days, coming a week after he backed two other large solar farms, Pear Tree Hill in East Yorkshire and Dean Moor in West Cumbria.<\/p>\n

Skeptics suggest the Energy Secretary is trying to sign off as many such developments as he can before Andy Burnham takes office and potentially moves him to a new position<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One Earth has been cleared for construction on 4,000 acres of prime farmland near Bassetlaw, Newark and Sherwood and West Lindsey district council areas.<\/p>\n

Besides the thousands of Chinese-made solar panels, the scheme will also include giant batteries to store surplus electricity.<\/p>\n

It is set to be the second largest solar farm in the UK after the Springwell Solar Farm<\/a> in Lincolnshire, an 800-megawatt project approved by the Government in April.<\/p>\n

Confirming his decision, Mr Miliband said: \u201cThe only way to have energy security is if we take a pro-growth approach to building more clean energy in Britain. For two years that is exactly what this Government has done.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the new scheme is controversial because it will see several rural communities largely surrounded by solar panels covering what were once fields and hedgerows.<\/p>\n

The village of North Clifton, around 10 miles from Lincoln, would have solar farms to the north, east and south, with some of the local farms being completely surrounded.<\/p>\n

Property owners cannot claim any compensation for the likely devaluation of their homes.<\/p>\n

\u2018High flood risk\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr Miliband\u2019s inspectors have also warned of a very high risk that the solar farm would face flooding from the adjacent River Trent.<\/p>\n

David Rogers, the emeritus professor of ecology at Oxford University, said: \u201cThis is an extraordinary decision given the extensive level of flood risk along the River Trent here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe central part, along the river, is high flood risk and a much larger part is medium flood risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Rogers added: \u201cWhat is the point of having a planning examination if everything is approved, regardless?\u201d<\/p>\n

Like most of the UK\u2019s renewable energy projects, the scheme is backed by largely foreign investors.<\/p>\n

The backers are PS Renewables, whose parent company, Sumando Acciones, is Spanish, and Perigus Energy, owned by Denmark\u2019s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.<\/p>\n

The decision means the Government has now approved 30 nationally significant clean-energy projects since coming to power, which it says will be enough to supply the equivalent of more than 19 million homes.<\/p>\n

In the past 24 months, Lincolnshire has become the flashpoint of the UK\u2019s clean energy transition.<\/p>\n

Spurred by Mr Miliband\u2019s net zero strategy, his energy department has bypassed councils<\/a> to approve eight significant infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

Besides One Earth and Springwell, he has approved six other multi-megawatt schemes \u2013 Tillbridge, West Burton, Heckington Fen, Cottam, Gate Burton and Mallard Pass, all in the face of widespread local opposition.<\/p>\n

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said in a statement: \u201cLocal communities continue to be given the opportunity of being involved in the examination of projects that may affect them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed Miliband has approved Britain\u2019s second-largest solar farm after overruling opposition from his own inspectors. The Energy Secretary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[84,5098,9610,1397,85963,1912,15257,90,12634,5438,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-682024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-business","tag-clean-energy","tag-ed-miliband","tag-environment","tag-lincolnshire","tag-net-zero","tag-nottinghamshire","tag-science","tag-solar-power","tag-standard","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}