Grid connection

Field's 400MW High Marnham battery storage project wins planning approval in Nottinghamshire, construction not due until 2028

Bassetlaw District Council has granted irrevocable consent for a standalone 400MW battery site on the old High Marnham power station land, built to soak up surplus renewable power and feed it back when demand is high, another sign of how much grid-scale storage capacity is queued up behind slow build timelines.

2 September 2026 · Source: Solar Power Portal

Field has secured planning approval from Bassetlaw District Council for a 400MW standalone battery energy storage system on the site of the former High Marnham power station in Nottinghamshire. The project will charge when renewable generation, mostly wind and solar, is running ahead of demand and would otherwise be curtailed, then discharge back to the grid when demand is high, the same flexibility role played by every other standalone BESS project this site has covered. Field operates as a long-term developer and owner rather than a build-and-sell developer, so it will keep running the site once it's live rather than flipping it to another investor.

The most striking detail in the announcement isn't the capacity, it's the timeline. Construction isn't expected to start until 2028, roughly two years after this approval, and will then take around two years to complete. That gap between planning consent and steel in the ground is a useful, concrete illustration of how long the pipeline is for grid-scale flexibility assets even once the planning hurdle is cleared, land, grid connection agreements and construction slots all still have to line up before a project this size can actually start absorbing curtailed power.

For a Sandwich Solar reader, a Nottinghamshire BESS project has no direct bearing on a rooftop or plug-in installation in East Kent, this site's readers aren't the ones building or financing it. But the pattern behind it is the same one shaping the local picture: a national grid trying to manage a growing volume of variable renewable generation with too little flexible capacity currently connected, which is the underlying reason DNO connection queues, G98/G99 notification friction and delayed dates keep coming up for domestic and small commercial installs in this site's own coverage area. Every standalone BESS project that eventually comes online, wherever it sits, marginally eases that same national pressure.

No action needed from a homeowner or MCS prospect here, this is a long-lead infrastructure project years from breaking ground, not a scheme with sign-up dates. It's worth tracking as one more data point on how much grid-scale storage is now working its way through UK planning, and how slowly that pipeline actually moves even once approval is granted.

Read the original: Solar Power Portal. Commentary is Sandwich Solar's own editorial view; the original reporting is credited to its publisher.

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