A 50MW battery farm on 2.2 hectares at Silkstead Farm, Hursley, has changed hands. Three parish councils objected. Construction starts 2027, power flows 2028.

A battery storage site approved on farmland at Hursley, about four miles south-west of Winchester, has been sold to a company that says it will start building in 2027.

Eelpower Energy announced on 3 September that it had bought the Silkstead project from its developer, Balanced Grid Works. The company describes it as a 50MW, 200MWh scheme, its fifth acquisition since it launched in September 2025, and says construction will begin in 2027 with commercial operation expected in 2028 (Eelpower Energy).

None of that announcement says where the site is, beyond “near Winchester”. The planning register does.

The site, and what was approved

The permission is 24/01007/FUL, for land at Silkstead Farm, Poles Lane, Hursley. Winchester City Council granted it on 13 March 2025.

  • The site is 21,845 square metres, about 2.18 hectares, of Grade 3 agricultural land
  • Permission is temporary, for 30 years from the first export of electricity
  • After that the structures must come out and the land be restored, under a decommissioning scheme submitted at least six months beforehand
  • If the site stops working for a continuous 12 months before then, an early decommissioning scheme is triggered within three months
  • Work must begin within three years of the permission, so by 13 March 2028
Timeline for the Silkstead Farm battery storage site at Hursley, from permission granted on 13 March 2025 and the layout amendment lodged on 14 July 2026, through the sale on 3 September 2026, construction in 2027 and operation in 2028, to decommissioning 30 years after first export
The Silkstead Farm battery site timeline. Sources: Winchester City Council planning register; Eelpower Energy, 3 September 2026.
Share this chartFacebookWhatsAppX

Hursley Parish Council, which objected, put the scale in local terms: an area of about three football pitches, behind 2.4 metre security fencing, visible from Poles Lane, reached through a new gap in a native hedgerow where there is no field gate today.

Three parish councils objected, and about 30 residents

Hursley, Otterbourne, and Compton and Shawford parish councils all lodged objections in July 2024. The register carries roughly 30 objections from residents and one letter of support.

Hursley Parish Council’s objection ran to nine numbered points. It accepted the national case for storing energy rather than wasting it, then said the facility “is simply in the wrong place”. Its main arguments were:

  • the loss of a greenfield site in agricultural use, with countryside on every side
  • no assessment of brownfield alternatives, such as extending the existing battery facility near the Oliver’s Battery substation, or using the substation site itself
  • harm to the rural gap between Hursley and Otterbourne, and to mature native hedgerows
  • a Flood Risk Assessment recording a high risk of groundwater flooding across the whole site
  • road safety on Poles Lane, which it described as an accident zone with an unexpected junction on a bend
  • a grid connection 2.2km away as the crow flies, needing about 3.5km of trenching or overhead cable along Bunstead Lane and Port Lane, over land the applicant does not control

The council granted permission anyway, with conditions attached to most of those points.

The conditions that will matter to neighbours

  • Construction hours are 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 4pm on Saturdays, with no work on Sundays or bank holidays
  • Nothing can start on the battery compound until fire safety arrangements are approved, and the council must consult Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service first
  • A Construction Management Plan is required before any work, covering dust, noise, lorry routes, wheel washing, a public complaints procedure and light spill
  • Noise must be re-measured within three months of installation, and if the criteria are missed the operator has to fit mitigation and test again
  • Lighting details need separate written approval before anything permanent is installed
  • Planting on the landscape strategy plan must go in during the first planting season after power starts flowing, between November and February

A change is in front of the council right now

The new equipment is already forcing a redesign. A non-material amendment, 26/01447/NMA, was lodged on 14 July 2026 for an updated site layout.

The agent’s cover letter is unusually clear about why. Newer, denser batteries and inverters mean fewer units are needed, and the compound footprint does not grow. The battery containers shrink from 3.9m by 12.2m to 3.8m by 9.2m. The inverter units drop from 3.9m to 2.9m tall but get longer. Two things are added: a welfare unit with an office and toilet for maintenance staff, on a septic tank, and a 3m by 10m water tank purely for firefighting.

The case officer asked the applicant on 13 August to extend the decision date to 1 September. When we checked the register on 7 September the application was still showing as current, so it has not yet been determined.

What it means for you

  • Nothing is being built yet. The developer’s own timetable is construction in 2027 and operation in 2028, and the permission expires if work has not begun by 13 March 2028.
  • Poles Lane is the access. Construction traffic routes have to be set out in a plan and approved before work starts, and that plan must include a complaints procedure for the public.
  • You cannot object to the permission again. It was granted in March 2025 and the objection window closed long before that. The live application is only about the layout, and non-material amendments are not publicly consulted on in the way a full application is.
  • You can still track it. Both references are searchable on the council’s planning register, and our Winchester planning news page follows local decisions.
  • Watch for the discharge of conditions. The fire safety details, the Construction Management Plan and the highways agreement all have to be approved separately, and each one appears on the register as it is submitted.

Sources