The Planning Process
Steeple Renewables Project could deliver up to 600MW of solar power generation and associated battery storage capacity. Given this scale, the project qualifies as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) and as such will procced through the Development Consent Order (DCO) planning process.
This means that, following public consultation and assessment, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero will make the final decision on project approval. The Planning Inspectorate (PINS) will appoint the Examining Authority that will examine the application on behalf of, and make a recommendation to, the Secretary of State.
For a DCO application to be accepted by PINS we must satisfy them that we have undertaken robust consultation for the project with statutory consultees (such as Bassetlaw District Council) and with local communities.
RES is committed to meaningful engagement and ongoing dialogue with the local community. To achieve this, we have ensured ample opportunity for local input and held six weeks of early informal consultation between Monday 23 October and Monday 4 December 2023.
The feedback from this period has been used alongside our ongoing environmental and technical work to refine the proposals. We are now holding a further round of consultation, which will run for six weeks from Monday 20 January 2025 until 11:59pm on Monday 03 March 2025.
To find out more about the DCO process please visit the PINS website: https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/application-process/the-process/
