TGC Renewables has applied for planning permission for a 13MW solar park in Cambridgeshire.
The proposed development will see 58 hectares of low-grade agricultural land in the South West of Cambridge house up to 55,000 solar PV modules.
If the plans are approved, the solar development is expected to provide enough carbon-free electricity to supply over 3,300 local homes.
The potential solar park is the latest in a long line of >5MW solar parks that are being developed under the Renewable Obligation (RO) scheme, which will see the eligible rate for solar drop from 2ROCs to 1.6ROCs on 1 April 2013. However, as this application proves, developers are still confident that developments will continue under the lower RO rate.
Commenting on the state of the large-scale solar market in the UK, Rob Denman, Director, TGC Renewables, said: “With the large scale solar market still attractive to investors and land owners, the challenge that developers are now rising to is to make the most efficient use of available grid connections.”
“In practice this means having the expertise to develop multi-MW projects on sites that meet planning and EIA criteria, whilst also retaining affordable grid connectivity.”
“Having developed significant in-house expertise, we can take our projects through the entire development cycle from feasibility through to grid connection.
Denman added: “We now have over 50 MWs in planning and aim to increase this to over 100 MWs over the next 12 months.”