Renewable sites › Native River
Native River
Native River is an operational 57 MW battery storage site in Cheshire West and Chester, generating since 14 April 2025. Planning permission was granted on 16 April 2021, 4 months after submission. Operator of record: Varco Energy.
Planning and build timeline
| Application submitted | 17 December 2020 |
| Permission granted | 16 April 2021 4 months after submission |
| Operational | 14 April 2025 48 months after consent |
Screening a site of your own?
Cheshire West and Chester approves 91% of battery storage schemes. 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 Native River’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.
- Green Belt — Cheshire West and Chester
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.
Cheshire West and Chester’s record on battery storage
Cheshire West and Chester has decided 11 battery storage schemes and approved 91%, taking a median of 9.2 months. See every battery storage scheme decision in Cheshire West and Chester →
Other built sites within 15 km
| Site | MW | Distance |
|---|---|---|
Battery · Under Construction | 57 | 0.4 km |
Battery · Operational | 100 | 1 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 0.22 | 4.1 km |
Advanced Conversion Technologies · Under Construction | 28 | 5 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 72.2 | 5.8 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 1.2 | 6.4 km |
EfW Incineration · Operational | 16 | 6.7 km |
Solar Photovoltaics · Operational | 3.8 | 6.7 km |
How big is Native River?
Native River has a recorded installed capacity of 57 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 Native River?
REPD records the operator as Varco Energy. 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 Native River approved and built?
The application was submitted on 17 December 2020. Permission was granted on 16 April 2021, 4 months later. The site became operational on 14 April 2025, 48 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 8283.
Novarly Parcel · official public data, read properly · parcel.novarly.com
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