Pathfinder Clean Energy (PACE), a leading UK-based developer of utility-scale renewable energy projects, has been granted planning permission for Lassington Solar and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), a 40MW solar and storage development located near Gloucester, Gloucestershire.
The decision follows a planning committee hearing at which Tewkesbury Borough Council considered the scheme alongside strong local support, including testimony from the farming family whose land hosts the project. The site will remain in agricultural use throughout the project’s life, with sheep grazing among the panels and the wider farm continuing its beef enterprise allowing food production and clean energy generation to sit side by side.
The scheme directly supports the Council’s declared Climate Emergency and its commitment to carbon neutrality by 2030. With a planned grid connection date ahead of 2030, Lassington is well-positioned to contribute to both national decarbonisation targets and the Council’s local emissions goals, alongside delivering significant Biodiversity Net Gain.
Farming has faced increasingly volatile weather and rising input costs in recent years, and many farming families are looking for ways to adapt. Projects like Lassington are designed to support that adaptation directly: the land remains in active agricultural use, with sheep grazing among the panels and the wider farm continuing its beef enterprise, while the income from the solar lease gives the family greater certainty to invest in and diversify their farming operations. In this way, clean energy generation and resilient farming are not in competition, they reinforce one another.
Rob Denman, Managing Director at PACE, commented: 'Approval for Lassington is a strong result- not just for PACE, but for the farming family who worked with us throughout this process to show that solar and agriculture can thrive side by side. As farming contends with a changing climate, projects like this give families reliable income to support their wider operations while contributing clean, home-grown power to the grid.'
Source: Pathfinder Clean Energy
