The Peartree Hill Solar Farm Order 2026, made on 2 July 2026 and in force from 23 July 2026, grants development consent under the Planning Act 2008 for a nationally significant solar and storage scheme on land east of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire. According to the statutory instrument signed for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Secretary of State accepted the Examining Authority's recommendation after considering environmental information and the statutory decision-making tests in section 104 of the 2008 Act. In practical terms, that moves the scheme from application stage into an authorised regime. It is no longer simply a proposal before the planning system. It is a consented project with a bespoke set of powers, limits and controls written directly into the Order.
The undertaker is RWE Renewables UK Solar and Storage Limited. Schedule 1 authorises a ground-mounted solar photovoltaic generating station with a gross electrical output above 50 megawatts across land areas B to F, together with a battery energy storage system, two onsite substations, 132 kilovolt cabling, works at the National Grid Creyke Beck substation, access works, construction compounds and green infrastructure and habitat management areas. The Order also authorises the supporting infrastructure that often determines how such schemes function in practice, including fencing, CCTV, drainage, private track improvements, permissive paths, watercourse crossings, utility diversions and temporary compounds. That is a standard feature of development consent orders. The principal generating assets and the enabling works are brought into one legal instrument rather than left to a series of separate permissions.
Articles 3 to 7 do more than grant planning consent. They authorise construction within the Order limits, operation of the generating station and later maintenance, while making clear that maintenance cannot produce materially new or materially different environmental effects from those assessed in the environmental statement. The benefit of the Order sits primarily with the named undertaker, although it can be transferred or granted to others, usually with the Secretary of State's written consent. That matters for project finance and delivery. Large energy schemes are commonly built, owned, operated and refinanced through different corporate arrangements. The transfer provisions allow that to happen within a controlled statutory structure. The Order also makes clear that development consent does not displace every other regulatory requirement: any permit or licence still required under separate legislation must still be obtained. For planning law purposes, the consent is also treated as specific planning permission in relation to operational land.
The most consequential provisions for landowners sit in articles 21 to 33. The Order authorises compulsory acquisition of land, creation of new rights, imposition of restrictive covenants, temporary possession, acquisition of subsoil only in some cases, and the overriding or extinguishment of private rights where they conflict with the authorised development. Compensation remains payable under the usual statutory code, and the Order carries a no double recovery rule so that the same loss is not compensated twice. The time limits are equally important. The Order was made on 2 July 2026, and the main compulsory acquisition powers run for five years from that date, taking them to July 2031. Separate financial protection is built in: before those land powers can be exercised, the undertaker must have a guarantee or other approved security in place for compensation liabilities. The Secretary of State also made the finding required for special category land at Figham Common, allowing new rights or restrictive covenants there on the basis that the land will be no less advantageous than before.
The consent is heavily conditioned. Schedule 2 requires the project to commence no later than 23 July 2031 and prevents substantial works from starting until the local planning authority has approved detailed design information, a construction environmental management plan, a construction traffic management plan, a soil management plan, a site waste management plan and, for the battery element, a battery safety management plan following consultation with Humberside Fire and Rescue Service and the Environment Agency. The biodiversity obligations are notably clear. The management plan for planting, habitats and ecology must show at least 55% biodiversity net gain for area habitat units, 35% for hedgerow units and 10% for watercourse units using Defra's statutory metric, unless another metric is agreed with the local planning authority in consultation with Natural England. There are also separate controls on archaeology, operational noise, fencing, operational environmental management and decommissioning. Each part of the development must begin decommissioning no later than 40 years after final commissioning, with a decommissioning environmental management plan submitted at least three months beforehand unless the authority agrees otherwise.
A large share of the Order deals with the mechanics of construction. It gives the undertaker powers to carry out street works, alter road layouts, create or improve access points, impose temporary closures and traffic controls, use certain private roads, and discharge water subject to consents and safeguards. The Order also disapplies selected local enactments and certain statutory provisions where they are inconsistent with the authorised scheme, but not on a blanket basis. On environmental permitting, the text removes the need for a permit only in relation to flood risk activity, while article 4 preserves the wider requirement to obtain any other permits and licences required by law. For local government, one of the most significant governance features is the deemed consent machinery. Where the undertaker applies to the local planning authority for approval under a requirement, the authority generally has 56 days to decide. If it does not do so, approval is deemed, but only where the application expressly states that the deemed consent provision applies. Similar deemed consent mechanisms appear elsewhere in the Order for street authorities, traffic authorities and drainage-related decisions. The drafting is intended to reduce delay risk once the Order is in force.
The protective provisions are extensive and carry real legal weight. They set the working rules between the solar project and existing infrastructure operators, including utility undertakers, the Environment Agency, National Gas, National Grid Electricity Transmission plc, Network Rail, Northern Powergrid and drainage authorities. In several cases the undertaker cannot acquire apparatus or interfere with rights except by agreement. Detailed notice periods, technical plan approval processes, indemnities and cost recovery rules are written directly into the Order. The document also recognises other live infrastructure and energy schemes in the same area. Requirement 16 requires the undertaker to use all reasonable endeavours to avoid conflict with Field House Solar Farm and to minimise conflict with Carr Farm Solar Farm, with continuing liaison with Albanwise Ltd. Separate provisions require co-ordination with National Grid Electricity Transmission plc in relation to the Wanlass Beck project. From a policy perspective, the Order shows how grid connection, land assembly and neighbouring consents increasingly have to be managed as one governance issue rather than as separate planning questions.
For residents, landowners and public bodies, the Order does not end the process. It changes the process. The principle of the development is settled, but detailed approvals, traffic management, ecological delivery, noise controls, archaeology, access management and decommissioning all move into the post-consent phase. The Order also contains statutory nuisance protections for the undertaker in defined circumstances, although those protections are tied to unavoidable effects or compliance with construction noise procedures rather than a general immunity. For planning professionals, the Peartree Hill Solar Farm Order 2026 is conventional in structure but still a useful example of how recent solar orders are handling battery safety, biodiversity net gain, neighbouring schemes and utility protection. The central point is straightforward: a large solar and storage project east of Beverley now has legal consent, but it can proceed only within a dense framework of land powers, environmental controls and continuing regulatory sign-off. The certified plans and book of reference must also be available for inspection at Beverley Library, which is the public access point named in the Order.