Copper Consultancy, the specialist infrastructure engagement and consultation agency, has today launched Solar Lite, a new repeatable, highly efficient and impactful platform to support consultation and engagement for large scale solar schemes.

Solar Lite uses a standardised methodology for both DCO and TCPA consultation and engagement, allowing developers and promoters to increase the speed, efficiency and certainty of statutory pre-submission activity.

It enables developers of single sites to access an established engagement toolkit to reduce the time it takes to submit their application and reduce cost. Developers with multiple site portfolios can benefit even more by rolling out a consistent communications template across all of their sites, enabling them to build once, use many times.

Using an industry leading approach to digital first engagement and communications, Solar Lite has been developed to drive engagement, meaningful consultation and advocacy, to achieve the best outcomes for local people, stakeholders and developers.

Discussing the launch, Sam Cranston, Director of Energy Infrastructure at Copper Consultancy said: “We are on the cusp of a decade of solar development. If the Government is going to reach its net zero targets, then large scale solar projects will play an essential part. However, they must be delivered as quickly, cost effectively and efficiently as possible. Solar Lite has been developed as a suite of resources and services to meet these criteria, helping developers go from identification of potential sites to energy generation as effectively as possible.”

Copper has over 25 years of delivering impactful engagement and compliant consultation for energy projects.

Solar Lite is based on our experience supporting over 40 DCO projects, 100% of which have been accepted for examination by PINS and 100% of which have gone on to be consented by the Secretary of State. We have also achieved consent for numerous developments via TCPA planning.

Copper has worked alongside some of the most significant companies in the UK energy market, including National Grid, RWE, Vattenfall, SSE Renewables and Ecotricity, and we are currently supporting a number of solar schemes through the planning process.

Find our Solar Lite brochure here