
Planning
Process
Given that the project would generate more than 50MW of renewable energy, Tillbridge Solar is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). This means that we need to submit a Development Consent Order (DCO) application to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

The Secretary of State will appoint an independent Examining Authority to scrutinise the development consent application in accordance with the relevant legislation (the Planning Act 2008). The Secretary of State will ask the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) to run the examination of the DCO application. Following this period of examination, PINS will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State as to whether to grant development consent.
You can read more information about the DCO planning process on the PINS website here.

We are planning to submit our full application to the Planning Inspectorate towards the end of in 2023. We have been and will continue to work with communities and other stakeholders before this to develop and refine our Scheme in more detail. We are now holding our statutory consultation, where we are consulting on our more developed proposals for you to comment on. To take part in our statutory consultation please visit the ‘Consultation’ page of this website.

In advance of our statutory consultation, we have published a Statement of Community Consultation (SoCC) outlining our commitments to how we are engaging throughout the development of Tillbridge Solar, including how we will consider and respond to feedback. The statutory consultation includes sharing the findings of our environmental surveys and assessments conducted up until that point, in our Preliminary Environmental Information (PEI) Report. Copies of the SoCC and PEI Report, along with a Non-Technical Summary (NTS) of the PEI Report, can be found in the ‘Documents Library’.
PEI Report Volume I Chapter 17: Cumulative Effects addresses the potential for effect interactions and cumulative effects to occur as a result of the Scheme. You can find this chapter in our ‘Documents Library’

Indicative timeline
- Summer 2022
- Initial engagement with stakeholders, including collaboration workshops
- September 2022
- EIA Scoping Request submitted to the Planning Inspectorate
- Spring 2023
- Publication of our Statement of Community Consultation (SoCC) and ongoing development of our EIA
- May – July 2023
- Statutory consultation to be held with community and technical stakeholders, including sharing the findings of our PEI Report
- Winter 2023
- Anticipated submission of DCO application to the Planning Inspectorate for public examination
- 2024 - 2025
- DCO examination and decision
- Autumn 2025
- Anticipated start of construction