FAQs

Anyone who is interested in the Scheme is welcome to take part in our targeted consultation. We welcome all views and will take them into account before our application for development consent is submitted in early 2026.

You can find more details of how to participate and provide your feedback here.

The government has set ambitious climate change targets to achieve net zero carbon emissions and ensure that the energy supply remains secure, reliable, and affordable. The government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan highlights the importance of achieving 45-47 GW of solar power by 2030 to reduce carbon emissions and the dependence on imported energy.

Meridian Solar has the potential to accelerate the UK’s transition to net zero and make a significant contribution towards achieving the government’s targets, while also increasing national energy security at a time of both rising energy bills and the increasing urgency to tackle the climate emergency.

Decarbonisation is a UK legal requirement and is of global significance. As established in the National Policy Statement for Energy (NPS EN-1), there is an urgent demonstrated need and critical national priority for low carbon and renewable energy infrastructure, which includes solar development at a national scale. The National Policy Statement for Electricity Networks (NPS EN-5) also states it is the government’s position that overhead lines should be the strong starting presumption for electricity networks in general and EN-1 establishes that there is a critical national priority for electricity grid infrastructure.

Solar developments play a crucial role in the UK's energy landscape, especially in meeting renewable energy targets outlined in key government policies such as the NPSs.

Solar energy schemes can contribute significantly to reducing carbon emissions, increasing energy security, and promoting a greener future for the UK, supporting the decarbonisation of transport and heat sectors, through electrification.

As a Scheme, Meridian Solar is committed to helping to realise the benefits of solar technology. We also understand the local sensitivities and are committed to developing our plans in a considerate and sensitive way.

Our site selection for the land parcels was determined using a three stage approach:

Stage one – identifying the opportunity area

The most important factor in the site selection process is the capacity of the electricity network to connect new renewable energy generation. National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) provided the Scheme with a point of connection into the planned new Weston Marsh substation, which will have required capacity to connect a new large-scale solar development.

Two other key factors at this stage are consideration of topography and sunlight exposure. Flat land helps to maximise sunlight exposure as it reduces shading on the solar panels, therefore generating more electricity compared to undulating land.

Stage two – consideration of constraints and opportunities

Following confirmation of the grid connection point, we considered the constraints and opportunities for a number of factors in the determining the site location.

A guiding principle was the early consideration for the deliverability of land for solar development: large land parcel areas are needed in close proximity to each other in order to deliver the required capacity.

Other important considerations are distance away from residential areas, availability of construction accesses, agricultural land classification, proximity to archaeological and heritage features, landscape and nature conservation designations, flood risk and watercourses.

Stage three – solar PV area site selection

Potential sites suitable for solar development were then identified. This included available land, with limited environmental effects, located as close as reasonably possible to the proposed Weston Marsh substation.

Appropriate land parcels were selected and agreements made with the relevant landowners. The location of the selected land parcels are considered suitable for a number of reasons, including:

• The area benefits from large areas of flat land and high levels of sunlight exposure
• Good transport access for construction, being located close to the A16
• There are limited sensitive receptors across the site, such as residential properties, and we believe any effects can be mitigated
• It is not located within or close to National Landscapes, National Parks or Green Belt
• It is not located within internationally or nationally designated biodiversity sites
• There are no listed buildings or conservation areas on or immediately adjacent to the solar PV area. There is are two scheduled monuments which we can avoid through appropriate exclusion zones
• No permanent closures of Public Rights of Way (PRoW) would be required, however there may be temporary closures which would be appropriately managed

Meridian Solar will include the construction, operation (including maintenance) and decommissioning of a ground-mounted solar PV electricity generating facility with overhead line connection to the national grid and associated infrastructure.

• The solar PV area includes the four land parcels (A, B, C and D) and on-site energy storage facilities
• The inter-array areas will link together the land parcels that form the PV areas
• The grid connection corridor is an approximate 12 to 13 km overhead line connection from the solar PV Area to National Grid’s proposed Weston Marsh substation, somewhere east of Spalding (exact location to be confirmed by National Grid).

The solar PV generating station and associated BESS would be located within four land parcels (A, B, C and D) over an area approximately 1,100 hectares (ha) / 2,700 acres.

We are committed to making a positive contribution to South Holland and beyond through opportunities for community benefit. We believe communities living closest to the Scheme should benefit from it as they’re best placed to recommend what a ‘community benefit’ should be. While the final sum for our community benefit fund will rely heavily on the final Scheme design post stage two consultation and what commitments are required through documents such as the EIA, it is likely that around £500,000 per annum will be available for community benefits for the life time of the Scheme (approximately £20 m in total should the Scheme go ahead).

Early suggestions from the non-statutory consultation included suggestions for funding towards:

• Improvements to existing community facilities, such as village halls
• Sports facilities, such as all-weather 3G pitches
• Subsidised solar PV panels and electric vehicle charging points for community use and lower cost energy
• Traffic calming measures through local villages and road improvements
• Support for community gardens and food growing
• Wider STEM training and education opportunities, such as a nature education fund.

Whilst the types of community benefit mentioned above would not form part of our application and cannot be taken into account in the determination of the application, this stage two consultation will be important in helping us to understand what local schemes or projects could be supported to benefit the communities located closest to the Scheme.

We’re inviting your continued views on how community benefit could be made available through our Scheme and how it could be administered and managed.

We are anticipating that the Scheme would be fully operational from earliest 2029, and would generate clean energy for approximately 40 years

Whilst emphasising the need for more rooftop generation, the latest Energy Security Strategy continues to recognise that ground-mounted solar is also important because it is able to contribute a much larger amount of generation than rooftop. It will be extremely difficult for the government to achieve its goal of 70GW solar electricity by 2035 without the use of ground-mounted solar sites.

To get the same amount of energy from a 350 MW solar farm you would need to install solar panels on 122,500 houses (average 3kWp array). There are technical difficulties with rooftop solar such as the need to be facing the right direction and be unshaded, which rules out a large percentage of building stock. By using a ground mounted site, Meridian Solar Farm would be able to diversify the existing agricultural landholding.

Solar works well everywhere in the UK. It is radiation from the sun, rather than temperature, heat or direct sunlight, that enables solar PV panels to generate electricity. Solar panels do not need direct sunlight to operate and produce power all year round, accounting for about 4% of national consumption. In the middle of a sunny day, they can produce over a quarter of the UK’s power.

Solar energy farms are large-scale solar installations where photovoltaic (PV) panels, referred to as solar panels, are used to harvest the sun’s power. The PV panels convert the solar energy into electricity which is exported to the National Grid.

1. Solar panels convert the sun’s energy into electrical power.
2. BESS will support the operation of solar panels by storing electricity produced during times of peak capacity and releasing it to the national grid when it is needed.
3. Infrastructure, such as inverters, transformers and switchgear, is needed to convert power generated by the solar panels so it can be transmitted to the national grid.
4. Substations facilitate the transmission of electricity between the site and the national grid.
5. Electricity is exported from the on-site substations to the national grid via 400 kV overhead lines.
6. Power is transmitted to the network by the local network operator via the national grid.
7. Into our homes and businesses.

Battery storage, or battery energy storage systems (BESS), enable energy from renewables, like solar and wind, to be stored and released when customers need power most.

Solar farms help to provide valuable income for farmers to diversify and improve their agricultural operations and, in some cases, maintain the integrity of the farming estate for the longer term. They can still be used for grazing and support UK farmers to continue food production on other parts of their land. Some developers consider growing produce under or alongside solar panels.

Meridian Solar would generate low-carbon electricity, helping to address climate change, protecting the UK’s land and improving long-term food security.