Cleve Hill Solar Park Now Fully Operational, Becomes UK’s Largest at 373MW Capacity

Image: Cleve Hill Solar Park, Kent – Credit: Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has officially completed construction and launched full commercial operations at the Cleve Hill Solar Park, now crowned as the UK’s most significant operational solar project.

Situated in Kent, Cleve Hill is now exporting electricity at its full 373 megawatts of capacity. Construction began in 2023, and the site continues to expand. Work has already started on a massive 150-megawatt battery energy storage system, which will be situated alongside the solar plant.

Once that battery system comes online, Cleve Hill won’t just be the UK’s biggest solar plant—it’ll become the nation’s largest co-located solar and storage project. During the commissioning stage in May, Cleve Hill’s output reached a peak, supplying around 0.7% of the UK’s total power demand. That’s a striking milestone for a single site.

To put things in perspective, Cleve Hill’s capacity is roughly four times larger than the country’s next biggest solar farm, Llanwern in Wales, which produces just under 50 megawatts.

The project has been a pioneer on several fronts. It was the first solar development in the UK to be granted status as a nationally significant infrastructure project, a recognition typically reserved for the country’s most important and most impactful developments. It also led the way in financing, backed by the largest solar-plus-storage project funding deal ever seen in the UK.

According to Quinbrook’s managing director and UK regional leader, Keith Gains, Cleve Hill “sets a benchmark for large-scale solar projects to help decarbonise the UK power system and demonstrates how investing in the infrastructure needed to transition the UK to clean energy can support local communities and create new jobs”.

Cleve Hill was the first solar project of its kind to win a Contract for Difference in the fourth auction round and secured a landmark corporate power purchase agreement with Tesco, one of the largest in UK history.

Rosalind Smith, a director at Quinbrook, reflected on the scale and ambition of the project during a webinar hosted by Solar Power Portal. She called it “the experience of a lifetime,” noting how many “firsts” were involved in bringing the site to life.

Quinbrook’s CEO, David Maxwell, is expected to speak at the UK Solar Summit 2025 in London later today. He’ll be joining a panel titled NSIP Nation: Lessons from the Frontlines of Energy Infrastructure. We’ll continue reporting key insights from the summit as the day progresses.