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Developers add 140 MW of new solar farms on UK sites
Five schemes secure financing as three more are connected to the grid
The building of large-scale, largely ground-mounted solar photovoltaic ‘farms’ the UK continues apace, with eight new installations under construction or connected to the grid recently. Project developers are increasingly interested in adding sympathetic land, farming and wildlife management plans to the power generation schemes.
First, solar technology manufacturer SunEdison and clean energy power plant operator TerraForm Power have secured financing to build five large-scale solar farms in the UK which will together have a generating capacity of 85 MW. Financing has been provided by Santander Global Banking and Markets and Bayerische Landesbank, which each provided a £35mn bridge loan with a tenor of two years.
SunEdison has begun construction on all five sites, and expects to complete them this spring.
Second, BELECTRIC UK and First Solar have connected the UK’s largest yet solar farm to the grid. The 46 MW Landmead Solar Farm near Abingdon in Oxfordshire will supply around 45 GWh of electricity per year for the next 25 years. The plant is expected to displace an estimated 20,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
The Landmead Solar Farm is the latest in a series of joint ventures between BELECTRIC, which designed and built the installation, and First Solar, a global provider of photovoltaic solar systems. In just three months, BELECTRIC installed more than 483,000 of First Solar’s advanced thin film PV modules on 200 acres of low-quality, Grade 3 agricultural land production.
Third, solar energy generator, Lightsource Renewable Energy has added another two solar farms to its portfolio. The 4.7 MW Burnthouse Solar Farm, near Turves in Cambridgeshire, has been connected to the electricity grid. The site has been designed to allow for the grazing of small livestock on-site and includes a number of biodiversity enhancements, says Lightsource, which ensure farming practices can continue at Burnthouse Farm.
The same company has also connected the 5.1 MW Westwood Solar Farm in Nottinghamshire, with a land management plan for the ongoing care of the solar farm site to ensure maximum benefit to the local environment.
