Large solar array in Somerset

[Nick]

Coming back from Devon this afternoon I saw a large solar panel array alongside the A303 in Somerset. Ilminster area I think. I think it is quite recent. Hundreds and hundreds of panels covering probably several acres of previous farmland. How does this work financially? Does the land owner buy/install the panels with associated equipment & grid attachment? Does the land owner enter into a long term contract with a company that specialises in this? Does the land owner sell the land to such a company? I think this unlikely. Idle curiosity really. A meagre benefit of being stuck in a traffic jam! Thanks, Nick.

[Peter Crosland]

I live about five miles from it. There are different schemes and I can't tell you which kind this is. Most common is that the landowner signs a contract that allows the company to install the equipment and run it for

25 years after which the planning permission requires the land to be reinstated. The land owner receives a fee that may be based on the amount of electricity generated.

[Nick]

Thank you Peter, I imagined that might be the way it worked.

[Peter Crosland]

You are welcome Nick. You can see the details here.

The power output is rated at 7.6mW which my maths suggest is the equivalent to around 2,000 domestic roof arrays.

[Andy Burns]

Even at this time of year, it might manage a little more than that ...

[Huge]

Sounds about right.

[Tim Watts]

On Monday 25 November 2013 07:23 Peter Crosland wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Wow - several acres for a few megawatts (I assume you did not mean milli- watts!). Few megawatts when the sun is shining for a few hours a day.

I really do not see how that can be viable...

[Dave Liquorice]

But only just and for well less than 12 hours/day. You know what will be next don't you same developer and farmer getting together and filling a field with 500 kVA containerised auto start diesel generators to even out the unpredictabilty of the solar...

[Andy Burns]

In which case the combined output should all be sold at unsubsidised market rates, when the sun shines (or the wind blows if they used the same trick with turbines) they can save a little on the diesel usage ...

[Dave Liquorice]

The OP wrote milli Watts so the only safe assumption is that the OP is a journalist. B-)

They aren't if the market for wholesale electricity had a level playing field. The playing field isn't level Solar PV is subsidised, like wind, at our expense.

[Chris J Dixon]

What is currently claimed to be the UKs largest solar farm has been built close to me. It seems to be a particularly suitable location.

Even CPRE like it:

Chris

[Tim Watts]

On Monday 25 November 2013 09:09 Dave Liquorice wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Yep.

If Libya could get itself stable, it could have a potentially good market for this sort of installation. It's got loads of otherwise useless deserts with excellent insolation, and it's not that far by undersea cable from Sicily and thenceforth to the rest of Europe. Could be a nice little earner.

[Bill Taylor]

Feed in tariff of 7p per kWh export tariff of 5p per kWh, so 12p per kWh. You can buy the hardware retail for about £850 per kWP, so at industrial scale I would hope it would be nearer £500, so that's less than 4p per kWh over the lifetime of the generator

Or capital outlay for 7.6MW about £3.8M, income over 20 years about £18M.

The companies tat organise these things will only be interested in land that has easy access, is close to a high voltage line and isn't in a special area (AONB, National park etc.)

[Peter Crosland]

Bugger! Of course I meant MW.

[The Natural Philosopher]

the value of e0onergy that is only available by day on to the northern Europe is rather low. Probably about 3p a unit delivered.

That wont even pay for the cable. Which of cpourse woulkd be a tempting terrorist target in itself.

[Dave Liquorice]

Not to mentions losses in the cable, you may shovea couple fo GW into it but how much dribble out in Northern Eusrope?

[Tim Watts]

On Monday 25 November 2013 11:47 Dave Liquorice wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Most of it I would have thought.

The Dutch Interconnecter is 160 miles long and rated at 1GW.

Tripoli to Sicily is about 275 miles. Tunisia to Sicily is about 90 miles.

So if they could get Tunisa in on the act, it would be a relatively modest distance compared to similar schemes. But even direct, it would be doable - at much creater expense of course.

On the subject, how's this for a cable:

[Timothy Murphy]

Slightly OT, but it seems to me electricity from solar energy should be imported from Spain and southern Italy to northern europe on a massive scale. (I believe there is some importation from Spain to Germany at present.)

I read once (I could have the figures wrong) that 5 times as much energy reaches a solar panel in Spain as in the UK.

This would not only be a significant source of electricity; it would also go some way to restore the economic balance between northern and southern europe.

[news13k]

Mostly, terrorists go after people, not infrastructure. It's just sometimes, infrastructure happens to be in the same place as the people (particularly true for public transport and large buildings).

#Paul

[Andrew May]

Doesn't that rather depend on the terrorist? I seem to remember that the Welsh Nationalists were rather fond of taking out TV repeaters so that the Welsh valleys could not receive English TV.