CLEAN ENERGY FOR CUMBRIA
Clean energy for over 50,000 homes and a brighter future
Planning application update 05/01/2026
The Examination for the Dean Moor Solar Farm proposal closed at 23.59 on 5 January 2026 and the Examining Authority's Section 99 - Notification of completion of the Examination has been published.
Thank you to all who provided feedback, comments, and engaged with the Examination.
You can view the application, including Submission documents, Examination documents, and the Examination timetable on the Planning Inspectorate’s website here at: Dean Moor Solar Farm - Project Information.
More details may also be found on our FAQs page, further guidance on the Examination process can also be found here: https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/application-process/the-process/.
Webinar recording
The recording below provides a more detailed update on the project, including information on the pre-examination and examination processes.
DEAN MOOR SOLAR FARM
The application for Dean Moor Solar Farm was accepted by the Planning Inspectorate following application submission in Spring 2025. Following the Preliminary Meeting on 22 July 2025, the application entered the Examination period, which ran until 23.59 on 5 January 2026.
The design that was submitted as part of our DCO application took into consideration the feedback we received during our non-statutory and statutory public consultations, in addition to technical evaluation and environmental studies undertaken throughout the pre-application period of the project’s development.
More information on the statutory consultation can be found on the Public Consultation page and the consultation materials are available on the Documents page.
Dean Moor Solar Farm is located between the villages of Gilgarran and Branthwaite in West Cumbria. If approved, the project will consist of the construction, operation and maintenance, and decommissioning of a solar energy generating station comprising solar photovoltaic (‘PV’) arrays, landscape and biodiversity enhancements, and other associated infrastructure (‘the Proposed Development’) on approximately 279.50 hectares (‘ha’) of land.
The solar farm will assist in tackling the climate emergency and help the UK Government in meeting its target to reach net zero by 2050 and ambition to reach 70 gigawatts of installed solar capacity by 2035.
FAQs Section Update
We’d like to thank local residents for providing their feedback during the informal public consultation stage, which we held in October 2023. We have updated our FAQ section to address some of the most frequent questions asked during the non-statutory consultation phase. The new FAQs are marked with a *.