The Peartree Hill Solar Farm Order 2026 has now given formal development consent to a large solar and battery storage scheme on land east of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The Order was made on 2 July 2026 and came into force on 23 July 2026, clearing the way for RWE Renewables UK Solar and Storage Limited to build, run, maintain and eventually remove the project under a single planning framework. Behind the legal language, the decision marks another step in how the UK is trying to add clean electricity at scale while tightening the rules around landscape change, habitat recovery and long-term site management. The Secretary of State’s decision followed examination under the Planning Act 2008 and took account of the project’s environmental information before consent was granted.

According to the Order, the nationally significant infrastructure project includes a ground-mounted solar generating station with a gross output above 50 megawatts, a battery energy storage system, onsite substations, cabling, access works and a connection into the grid at National Grid’s Creyke Beck substation. There is also provision for internal tracks, drainage, security infrastructure, landscaping, habitat works and new permissive paths. That matters because projects like this are no longer just fields of panels. They are energy sites with power conversion equipment, fire safety systems, control buildings, underground cables and green infrastructure built in from the start. In Peartree Hill’s case, the legal consent treats the energy kit and the ecological work as part of the same package rather than as separate afterthoughts.

One of the strongest features in the consent is the amount of environmental management pushed into the pre-construction stage. Before work can begin on each part of the site, the developer must secure approval for detailed layouts, drainage, traffic management, soil handling, waste management, archaeology and construction environmental controls from the local planning authority. The Order also ties the project back to its environmental statement. Maintenance or later changes are not allowed to create materially new or materially different environmental effects from those already assessed. That is a practical safeguard for local communities and habitats alike: if the scheme shifts in a meaningful way, it cannot simply drift beyond the impacts that were examined during the planning process.

For Eco Current readers, the clearest signal sits in the biodiversity requirements. The Peartree Hill Order says the landscape and ecological management plan must show how the scheme will deliver a minimum biodiversity net gain of 55% for area habitat units, 35% for hedgerow units and 10% for watercourse units, using Defra’s Statutory Biodiversity Metric from February 2024 unless another agreed metric is used. Those figures move the conversation beyond a simple trade-off between clean power and countryside character. The consent requires tree and hedgerow planting, habitat creation, drainage-linked ecological work and long-term management through the life of the project. It also requires relevant ecological survey and monitoring data to be shared with local and national recording bodies, which should make it easier to track whether promised gains are being delivered in the field rather than only on paper.

The Order recognises that infrastructure on this scale changes how people move through a landscape, at least for a time. It allows temporary closures or diversions of streets and public rights of way for construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning, but it also requires consultation with the street authority and reasonable pedestrian access to affected premises where there would otherwise be none. There is a further requirement for a rights of way and access management plan covering any sections of public routes that are temporarily closed or restricted. That matters locally. Solar projects often win or lose trust on the basics: how traffic is handled, whether walking routes remain usable, and whether promised public access features are actually delivered once the build phase is over. Peartree Hill also includes permissive paths, signage and information boards as part of its authorised green infrastructure.

Battery storage is another point where the Order shifts from broad ambition to operational detail. No part of the development containing the battery energy storage system can begin until a battery safety management plan has been approved, with consultation required with Humberside Fire and Rescue Service and the Environment Agency. The approved plan then has to stay in place through construction, operation and decommissioning. That sits alongside requirements on operational noise, drainage and pollution control. The authorised works include fire safety infrastructure, heating and ventilation systems, monitoring equipment, deluge systems, water tanks and containment features. For residents who hear 'battery storage' and think first about fire risk, the consent does not remove concern, but it does set out a chain of design, oversight and emergency planning that can be checked and enforced.

The legal powers granted are wide, but they are not open-ended. The Order authorises compulsory acquisition of land and rights, temporary possession of land, street works and access changes, yet it also builds in compensation duties, restoration duties and protections for utilities, drainage bodies, the Environment Agency, Network Rail, National Gas, National Grid Electricity Transmission and Northern Powergrid. The same is true for sensitive land. The Secretary of State states that special category land within the Order area, including parts of Figham Common, will be no less advantageous after the new rights or restrictive covenants are imposed. The Order also requires the undertaker to have a guarantee or other approved financial security in place before using key land powers, so liabilities for compensation are not left hanging over affected owners and occupiers.

Perhaps the most important line for the long view is the one on decommissioning. The Order says decommissioning of any part of the project must begin no later than 40 years after final commissioning. Unless the local planning authority agrees otherwise, a decommissioning environmental management plan must be submitted at least three months before that date, and the works cannot start until the plan is approved. That gives Peartree Hill something too many major projects still lack: a legally defined exit route. If the site is built well, managed well and restored well, it could show how large solar schemes can add power, habitat and public access rather than strip a landscape down to a single use. If the conditions are treated as box-ticking, the opposite will be true. The Order provides the framework. Delivery will decide the legacy.