Renewable sites › Ford Research And Engineering Centre, Dunton - Solar Farm
Ford Research And Engineering Centre, Dunton - Solar Farm
Ford Research And Engineering Centre, Dunton - Solar Farm is an operational 5.2 MW solar farm in Basildon, generating since 31 January 2025. Planning permission was granted on 28 February 2023, 9 months after submission. Operator of record: Ford Motor Company Limited.
Planning and build timeline
| Application submitted | 10 June 2022 |
| Permission granted | 28 February 2023 9 months after submission |
| Operational | 31 January 2025 23 months after consent |
Screening a site of your own?
Basildon approves 100% of solar farms. Redline puts that number, and everything else the record holds, against your own boundary: the authority’s actual approval rate and decision times, every designation inside the red line, agricultural grade, 1 m LIDAR earthworks, how contested the grid is, and yield with a P90 — before you spend on a consultant.
Arrives prefilled with Ford Research And Engineering Centre, Dunton - Solar Farm’s recorded coordinate — swap in your own postcode or coordinates.
What this site sits on
The recorded coordinate falls on land surveyed as Grade 3 agricultural land. The published survey does not split Grade 3 into 3a and 3b, so this alone does not settle whether the land counts as best and most versatile.
REPD gives one representative coordinate per scheme, not the site boundary, so this describes the point on record rather than the whole site — a large site can straddle a designation edge. Boundaries come from planning.data.gov.uk, which publishes for England only.
Basildon’s record on solar
Basildon has decided 12 solar farms and approved 100%, taking a median of 3.7 months. See every solar farm decision in Basildon →
Other built sites within 15 km
| Site | MW | Distance |
|---|---|---|
Battery · Operational | 28 | 1.9 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 10 | 2.2 km |
Battery · Operational | 49.9 | 2.2 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 49.9 | 2.2 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Under Construction | 25.6 | 5.3 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 5 | 5.3 km |
Battery · Operational | 10 | 6.4 km |
Battery · Operational | 5 | 6.4 km |
How big is Ford Research And Engineering Centre, Dunton - Solar Farm?
Ford Research And Engineering Centre, Dunton - Solar Farm has a recorded installed capacity of 5.2 MW. That figure is the capacity registered in REPD, which is the scheme as consented — the metered output of a site can differ.
Who operates Ford Research And Engineering Centre, Dunton - Solar Farm?
REPD records the operator as Ford Motor Company Limited. Ownership of built renewable assets changes hands regularly and REPD is published quarterly, so treat this as the operator of record rather than confirmation of who owns it today.
When was Ford Research And Engineering Centre, Dunton - Solar Farm approved and built?
The application was submitted on 10 June 2022. Permission was granted on 28 February 2023, 9 months later. The site became operational on 31 January 2025, 23 months after consent.
Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD), Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Open Government Licence v3.0, plus planning designation boundaries from planning.data.gov.uk (England only). REPD is published quarterly and covers schemes of roughly 150 kW and above. Capacity is the installed capacity on record, not metered generation. Operator is the operator of record at the last extract, not confirmation of present ownership. Reference 11486.
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