We are proud to announce that the Helios Renewable Energy Project has received development consent. On 3 December 2025, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) granted the DCO (Development Consent Order) for the project.

The scheme, promoted by Enso Energy in partnership with Cero Generation, features ground-mounted solar arrays, a battery energy storage system (BESS), and associated grid connection infrastructure on land west of Camblesforth and north of Hirst Courtney in North Yorkshire.

What the approval means – scale and significance of Helios

• The Helios project is designed to deliver clean electricity with a capacity of 190 MW, and structured to generate more than 50 MW of renewable power for the UK grid.
• Because the project exceeds the 50 MW threshold, it is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), and therefore required a DCO under the Planning Act 2008.
• The DCO bundled all necessary consents into a single approval, covering the solar PV modules and mounting structures, BESS, grid-connection cabling and substation, access works, environmental mitigation and enhancement, land rights / compulsory acquisition where needed, and any ancillary or incidental infrastructure.

In short, Helios is a major utility-scale solar and storage infrastructure project that will contribute significantly to the UK’s growing renewable generation capacity, and it now has the formal go-ahead from Government.

Avian Ecology’s role — from ecological surveys to mitigation design

At Avian Ecology, we are especially proud that this is our first NSIP solar DCO approval with which we have been involved. Having provided ornithological and ecological survey, authored the Biodiversity Chapter of the Environmental Statement, and developed sensitive ecological mitigation measures, we played a key role in supporting the environmental assessment for Helios.

Our work included:

• Full ecological and ornithological baseline surveys across the site, including habitats, riparian mammals, amphibians, badgers, breeding and non-breeding birds.
• Assessment to understand potential impacts from ground-mounted PV, BESS installation, and associated infrastructure.
• Environmental Statement reporting, including a detailed Biodiversity Chapter and mitigation proposals.
• Design of ecological mitigation and enhancement measures to avoid or minimise adverse impacts — including proposals for habitat management and biodiversity gain where appropriate.

By doing so, we helped to deliver a rigorous environmental assessment and mitigation strategy, supporting the overall sustainability and ecological integrity of the project in line with regulatory and environmental best practice.

Looking ahead – part of a broader NSIP pipeline

While Helios is our first successful solar DCO project, it is not our only NSIP engagement. We are currently advising on a number of other large-scale infrastructure proposals, at different stages of the NSIP process. The successful consent of Helios demonstrates our capacity to support major renewable developments from the earliest ecological survey work through to consenting and mitigation design.

In a fast-evolving UK renewables context, where multiple NSIP-scale solar and storage projects are emerging, we believe our team’s experience will continue to be in high demand.