The Sunnica Energy Farm (Amendment) Order 2026 was made on 21 May 2026 and took effect on 22 May, creating a narrow post-consent amendment to the project’s development consent order under the Planning Act 2008. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says the decision followed an application for a non-material change under Schedule 6 to the 2008 Act and the 2011 regulations governing changes to development consent orders. (gov.uk) The amendment does not revisit the original planning judgment on Sunnica as a whole. Instead, it adjusts the legal framework around an already consented scheme. (nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk)
According to the statutory instrument and the Secretary of State’s decision letter, the legal amendment is aimed at Schedule 10 of the 2024 Order, the schedule used to identify certified documents. The practical driver is a change to cabling at the Burwell National Grid Substation after discussions with National Grid Electricity Transmission about substation design. (gov.uk) DESNZ says Sunnica sought to alter the cable access point into the substation, bring in about 2 hectares of additional previously developed land, and update the corresponding plans and documents. Cambridgeshire County Council described the proposal during consultation as an extension of the order limits at Burwell to enable relocation of the connection cabling. (nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk)
The Secretary of State decided that the request could be handled as a non-material change rather than a material amendment. Government guidance published in December 2015 explains that changes to development consent orders are split between material and non-material routes, with the non-material procedure intended to be simpler and more proportionate. (nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk) In this case, the decision letter says no updated environmental statement was needed, no new habitats regulations assessment was required, no new European protected species licensing issue arose, and no additional compulsory acquisition powers were necessary because cabling rights would still depend on agreement with National Grid Electricity Transmission. (nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk)
Even under the lighter route, consultation remained part of the process. The Secretary of State agreed a reduced consultee list on 19 November 2025, the application was made on 27 November 2025, notices were placed in The Newmarket Journal and the Ely Standard on 27 November and 4 December 2025, and representations were invited until 16 January 2026. (nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk) The parties consulted included the four host authorities, Burwell Parish Council, National Grid Electricity Transmission and the Swaffham Internal Drainage Board. Cambridgeshire County Council published the same outline during the live consultation and said the Secretary of State had agreed the proposed list. (cambridgeshire.gov.uk)
On the responses, DESNZ records 36 representations. The decision letter says several local councils and National Grid Electricity Transmission raised no objection, while the Environment Agency and individual respondents raised points that the Secretary of State then addressed in the determination. (nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk) That detail matters because it shows the threshold being applied. The question was not whether the project remained controversial in the round, but whether this particular alteration changed the consent in a way that became materially different. The Secretary of State concluded that it did not. (nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk)
What has not changed is just as relevant. Sunnica remains an already consented national infrastructure project: the original development consent was granted on 12 July 2024 for a 500MW solar energy farm with battery storage, and the present order does not reopen that wider approval. (nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk) For infrastructure promoters, local authorities and planning advisers, the order is a useful procedural marker. A modest shift in grid connection design can still require a formal DCO amendment once order limits or certified documents move, but the government has shown that such a change can stay within the non-material route where its environmental and legal effects remain contained. (nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk)