Dragon Infrastructure Solutions (DragonIS) broke the 500MWp solar connections barrier in the UK during last month’s rush to beat the Renewable Obligation deadline.
The expiry of ROC support for solar farms over 5MWp caused a surge in projects needing to be connected and DragonIS connected a total of 12 sites with a combined capacity of 150MWp in March.
The company said that two of the sites in particular presented challenges due to the requirement for excavations in excess of 9km under tight time constraints.
DragonIS chief executive Simon Phipps said that the busy start the company had experienced in 2015 was likely to continue “for the foreseeable future”.
“I am thrilled that we have broken the 500MWp barrier, but we are now looking forward. We already have 12 new projects contracted, which is a staggering achievement for any organisation,” he said.
Speaking to Solar Power Portal last month, Phipps criticised connection deadlines created by government legislation for endangering distribution networks, claiming that “significant risks” were being taken by contractors in order to have projects finished in time.
“There’s so much money involved in these contracts – there’s hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds… [and] developers have gotten themselves into a position where they've spent too much money to back out, as they can't afford to lose that money so they've got to go for it,” he said at the time.