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Case Studies

How we’re managing Telis Energy’s first NSIP in the UK with Leoda Solar Farm

02 July, 2025

At a glance

Leoda Solar Farm is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) proposed for a 2,300 acre site near Newark in Lincolnshire that will deliver a target 500-600 megawatts of power to the national grid

It’s due to be connected through the proposed new Navenby substation, which is also going through its own Development Consent Order (DCO) and if consented, will be built by National Grid

Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) proposed for a 2,300 acre site near Newark in Lincolnshire

 

Dalcour Maclaren’s involvement

  1. Managing option agreements, working with landowners, agricultural tenants and their agents to achieve our client’s goals on the cable route
  2. Project management in collaboration with Telis to agree a strategy and land budget to include compensation, survey access, easement payments and professional fees
  3. Consultation and land rights, speaking to cable route landowners and advising in a technical capacity on agricultural matters, tenancy agreements, other occupation of land, rights to land and ownership
  4. Land referencing and GIS, comprehensively mapping the solar option land and cable route to show constraints, ownership and land occupation
  5. Completing detailed referencing, title interrogation and preparing the book of reference prescribed for the Development Consent Order

 

We Care

We know how important it is for landowners to see a friendly face rather than an intimidatingly worded letter when they’re first introduced to an NSIP. From Project Launch day 1,  the team met up in a village hall car park, allocated local stakeholders and cable route landowners and knocked on every single door. We sat down and had a cup of tea with them, gave them the context, provided them with the paperwork and visibly gave them a face and a name to contact for future inquiries. 

This resulted in us having 100% survey access in three months, which is a fantastic result compared with other projects of a similar scale. Putting in the effort at the beginning saved time in the long run and contributed to a positive view of the project among the local community.  Rather than causing antagonism from landowners, we had farmers wanting to get involved because they understood the benefits of the scheme. 

Telis Energy Group has a large presence around Europe with teams in the UK, Italy, Germany and France and many projects in our portfolio. We know first-hand the importance that consultancies play in working alongside our  teams to achieve our goal of Tomorrow’s Energy Today. I have worked in the land development industry for over 23 years and Dalcour have continued to be a mainstay and one of the leading organisations offering a number of services throughout a project's lifecycle.

The service we have received for Leoda has epitomised what we expect from a market leader, proactive and methodical in their approach with the element of human interaction and understanding that has contributed to not only the success rates but more importantly the positive perception of stakeholders.

We would not hesitate to appoint Dalcour again.

We Challenge

An important part of our role in project consulting and management is being able to roll with the punches when timelines are disrupted by internal or external factors. One of the big challenges we’ve faced on this project has been the wider market, as a NESO energy report published last November introduced reform to the waiting list for National Grid connection via substations. This means that while we’re prepared and ready to proceed with the project, we have to wait for clarity on the Gate 2 factor that will determine our place in the connection queue. 

It’s been important that we have continuous contact with landowners to maintain the positive relationships we’ve already built and make sure that the delays don’t cause undue frustration. We advocated for keeping a skeletal service while the rest of the project was on pause to make sure that landowners get continuity of care and to prevent any unnecessary damage to our client’s reputation.

We Innovate

It’s important to us that we use technology to augment our human offering rather than replace it. As part of this project, we’ve proposed to carry out drone surveys, which will significantly speed up the surveying process of the 2.3k acre site. Connecting the drone footage with the ArcGIS Survey123 app will allow us to map the whole area much more quickly and put together excellent records of condition. 

This data, gathered by our drone team, can then be used by our surveyors back at base to negotiate, review claims and enable payment. The more accurate the records of condition, the more accurate the compensation claim, potentially reducing the compensation liability for the client but equally making sure that the landowner gets what’s fair to them.

Championing renewable energy sources in the UK 

We’re excited to be part of Telis’ ambitious and nationally significant project and will continue to help them manage the land-related matters to achieve consent and connection of the Leoda site. We’re confident that our experience and expertise will allow us to flex to any requirements that arise out of the policy changes, and we’ll continue to live our ONETEAM ethos to ensure that the whole project team – client, consultants and contractors – pull together to bring this forward-thinking project to fruition.