German solar giant, Juwi Solar, has submitted plans to the East Lindsey District Council to construct a 10MW solar park in Skegness.
The plans follow the recent opening of the company’s new UK office in Birmingham. The solar installer felt that the UK solar market presented interesting opportunities for medium to large scale solar installs.
The 55-acre installation will boast 875 rows consisting of over 42,000 solar modules. Speaking to BBC News Lincolnshire, Jan Sisson, UK Managing Director of Juwi, explained that the solar park could provide: “Somewhere in the range of 1,800 to 3,000 homes' annual electricity requirements.”
Interestingly, a recent survey undertaken by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) suggests that public support for large-scale solar developments is incredibly high. Firstly, solar technology was identified as the most popular form of renewable generation by the British public and secondly, over half of those surveyed said they would be happy to have a large scale renewable energy development in their area.
Juwi’s solar park application is the latest in a surge of >5MW applicants looking to take advantage of the Renewable Obligation (RO) scheme. If approved, the park could be up and generating energy by the end of the year.
Juwi hopes that the current positive UK market conditions will allow its Birmingham-based operation to employ 20 people by the end of the year.