Labour gives go-ahead to UK's largest ever solar farm
The Tillbridge Solar project was green-lit by the energy security on Tuesday and will be constructed on a 3,000 acre site in the Lincolnshire countryside
Ed Miliband has given his approval for the UK's largest ever solar farm to be built on land where Reform UK’s anti-renewables agenda has won rising support.
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The Tillbridge Solar project was green-lit by the energy security on Tuesday and will be constructed on a 3,000 acre site in the Lincolnshire countryside.
The 700 megawatt site will be the largest ever built in the UK and the ninth solar project with “nationally significant” status since Labour came to power last year.
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Nationally Significant status means the government has the right to decide whether planning goes ahead or not.
According to the developer, Tillbridge Solar Farm in Lincolnshire could support 1,250 jobs and generate enough electricity to power 300,000 UK homes, providing a major boost for the government’s mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.
Clean energy projects introduced by the government now bring enough power to supply the equivalent of more than 7.5m homes.
Labour has promised to significantly upscale its clean energy efforts through increased investment in onshore wind-farms, solar power and offshore wind power by the end of the decade and to make the UK's electricity system carbon-free.
However, Mr Miliband was recently forced to defend the government’s net zero policies after Conservative and Reform party MPs raised concerns over rising job losses within the UK’s fossil fuel industries.
The MP's called for the government to back out of the UK's net zero by 2050 targets.
In a post on X, Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh, whose Gainsborough constituency would host the site, labelled Energy Secretary Ed Miliband "a dictator industrialising the Lincolnshire countryside and ruining food production".
"He has approved the Tillbridge Solar Project without any local planning input or consent, all subsidised by green taxes. Labour have no understanding of the countryside," he wrote.
In an interview with BBC Radio Lincolnshire, Sir Edward said solar was the least efficient source of energy.
This is at odds with the energy Minister Michael Shanks who commented: "Solar is one of the cheapest and quickest power sources we can build, it is crucial in our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower – giving us energy security, good jobs and growth across the country."
Greenpeace UK's senior climate campaigner, Paul Morozzo, welcomed the news, but said the government also needed to end "the rigged system" that enables the price of gas to dictate electricity prices.