The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has granted development consent for the Steeple Renewables Project, a proposed solar farm in Nottinghamshire comprising about 450MW of solar generation and a 150MW battery energy storage system. The decision was published on 9 October 2026, with the Planning Inspectorate stating that Baroness Curran acted on behalf of the Energy Secretary’s legal authority. (gov.uk) For policy readers, the immediate point is that the application has cleared the Development Consent Order route under the Planning Act 2008. The published decision record describes the application as covering the construction, operation and decommissioning of the generating facility and its associated infrastructure. (gov.uk)
The application was submitted by Steeple Solar Farm Limited on 14 May 2025 and accepted for examination on 11 June 2025. After the examination closed, the Examining Authority sent its recommendation to the Secretary of State on 10 July 2026. (gov.uk) The Planning Inspectorate says this was the 115th energy application out of 183 examined to date and that the case was completed within the statutory timetable in the Planning Act 2008. Under current government guidance, examinations run for up to six months, followed by up to three months for the recommendation report and a further three months for the Secretary of State’s decision. (gov.uk)
That timetable matters because the DCO regime is intended to keep nationally significant infrastructure decisions moving while still testing the evidence in public. Government guidance says the examination is mainly written, but can include hearings, written questions and site inspections where the Examining Authority considers them necessary. (gov.uk) For local communities, participation does not stop once an application is accepted. Interested parties can submit written representations, respond to material from other parties, answer the Examining Authority’s questions and ask to speak at hearings; the project page is also used to publish timetables, notices and key procedural documents. (gov.uk)
The Planning Inspectorate’s announcement emphasises that local people, the local authority and other interested parties were able to take part throughout the six-month examination, and that the Examining Authority considered local views alongside the wider evidence before making its recommendation. (gov.uk) That is consistent with the wider decision framework. Government guidance says the Secretary of State’s role in DCO cases is quasi-judicial and that decision-makers must work within the Planning Act framework, relevant policy, local impact reports and other important and relevant matters. The same guidance states that a decision may be delegated to another departmental minister acting on the Secretary of State’s behalf. (gov.uk)
The grant of consent settles the national infrastructure planning question: whether this scheme should receive development consent under the Planning Act 2008. Under section 114, the Secretary of State must either make an order granting development consent or refuse it, and if consent is granted the DCO is made and published with a statement of reasons. (gov.uk) In practical terms, the case now moves from examination into implementation. Government guidance explains that a made DCO can impose project-specific requirements on matters such as phasing, design parameters and environmental mitigation, with discharge functions allocated to the relevant authority named in the order. (gov.uk)
For practitioners, the most useful documents are not the press release alone but the full decision materials. The Planning Inspectorate says the decision, the Examining Authority’s recommendation and the evidence considered in reaching that recommendation are available on the National Infrastructure Planning website, and government guidance states that the decision letter and any made DCO are published at the decision stage. (gov.uk) As a case study, Steeple Renewables shows how the national infrastructure planning system is intended to work: acceptance, examination, recommendation and ministerial decision within a statutory sequence, with public participation concentrated in the examination phase and the legal effect delivered through the final order. (gov.uk)