A huge solar farm in Lincolnshire and another in Cornwall started generating green electricity on Thursday to become the UK’s two biggest solar installations, as developers rushed to beat an imminent cut in government subsidies.

The 1MW Fen Farm solar park and the 1.4MW Wheal Jane park in Truro are two of several such large-scale projects rushing to connect to the grid. They are trying to benefit from a higher level of feed-in tariff payments before the government cuts the rates by up 75% on 1 August.

When the cuts were confirmed last month, ministers defended them on the grounds that the funding for payments needed to be protected for householders. But energy industry figures and campaigners warned that making such large projects financially unviable would “crush” the solar industry and cost the UK “major manufacturing opportunities, jobs and global competitiveness”.

The 1MW Fen Farm solar park in Lincolnshire. Photograph: Paul Marriott/Paul Marriott for Ecotricity

The developers of the Truro park on the site of a disused tin mine worked around the clock to finish the project in time to beat the tariff cuts. Solarcentury and Lightsource Renewables originally planned to finish the park by the end of August. They were forced to bring both projects forward, at significant extra cost.

Although the solar park in Lincolnshire was always planned for completion before August, its developers, Ecotricity, experienced similar concerns about not completing the project in time. Founder Dale Vince, said that connecting to the grid by 1 August is an insecure business. “When you think that we’re finishing three weeks ahead of the deadline, we’re cutting it fine enough for my liking,” he said. “You’ve got a situation where the grid companies aren’t that amenable. They don’t get anything out of accommodating renewable energy on the grids so it’s never an easy thing. It’s a bureaucratic process and more often than not there will be a delay.”

Not all the projects are fortunate enough to have even three weeks’ leeway. Silicon Vineyards, the developer of a solar park at Benbole Farm in Cornwall, is working right up to the deadline.

Despite the cut in payments – from 30.7p per Kwh currently to 8.5p from August for field-size installations over 250Kw – some companies are pushing ahead with large-scale projects that will miss the deadline.

They are hoping that the government will announce in mid-July that renewable sources of energy including solar are now eligible for a higher level of a separate subsidy scheme, Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC).

Hopes in the industry are also being pinned on the exploitation of a legal loophole in the feed-in tariff system. Ray Noble, solar specialist at the Renewable Energy Association, said companies are putting plans on hold while they seek legal advice and wait for Ofgem to indicate whether smaller solar power projects could later be increased in size and still retain the higher rates.

“There’ll be some innovative ways of trying to make it work,” Noble said. “Most of the developers have kept very quiet while they lobby government to say they’re losing lots of money and that the system needs to be changed for them to make any plans.”

Ecotricity’s Vince was critical of the government’s support for solar power. “Our government has got its eyes focused on big nuclear and clean coal, and solar has become an inconvenient success story. But it seems crazy to me to have a cap. We need large scale solar to make the UK more energy independent and reduce our carbon. Large-scale solar is critical if this government is serious about being the greenest ever.”

Source: guardian
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The Solar Millennium Group is planning up to four solar thermal power plants at Blythe with a total power of 1,000 megawatts

At a festive celebration on Friday, June 18th, 2011, US Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, California’s Governor Jerry Brown and Joseph DeConinck, the mayor of Blythe, broke ground on the Blythe concentrating solar power plant (CSP) facility together with representatives of Solar Millennium (Erlangen, Germany) and Solar Trust of America.

Early construction works for the first two power plants with a net capacity of 242 megawatts (MW) each, commenced at the end of 2010.

The Solar Millennium Group is planning up to four solar thermal power plants at Blythe with a total power of 1,000 megawatts

Solar Power for more than 300,000 American households

Solar Trust of America, the American company unit within the Solar Millennium Group, plans to build up to four solar-thermal power plants with an overall capacity of about 1,000 megawatt at this location. The four power plants combined are to supply enough electricity for more than 300,000 American households and thus save some two million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. The fact that the Californian Mojave desert is among the world’s best solar energy locations was proven during the ceremony, which featured an outdoor temperature of 113 °F (45 °C).

 

A major milestone in the U.S. renewable energy economy

“Breaking ground on what will be the world’s largest solar power project is a major milestone in our nation’s renewable energy economy and shows that the United States intends to compete and lead in the technologies of the future,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. “This project shows in a real way how harnessing our own renewable resources can create good jobs here at home and contribute to our nation’s energy security.”

 

Overall investment amounts to roughly USD 2.8 billion

Dr. Christoph Wolff, CEO of Solar Millennium AG, adds, “Blythe marks not only a milestone for Solar Millennium, but also for the successful history of solar energy in general. For the first time, we are utilizing solar energy with capacities equaling those of nuclear power or major coal-fired power plants. I am pleased that we are able to make our contribution to reaching California’s ambitious climate targets as well as supporting the local economy. I would like to thank all those persons, who contributed to this achievement through their unceasing commitment and trust”. The overall investment sum for the first two solar-thermal power plants projected in Blythe amounts to roughly USD 2.8 billion.

 

USD 2.1 billion loan guarantee

Only a few weeks ago, US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, had offered the project company the conditional commitment for a USD 2.1 billion loan guarantee. The loan guarantees are the precondition for financing some 75% of construction costs of the first two 242 MW power plants with borrowed capital. The conditional commitment defines the covenants to be met by the applicant in order to receive the loan guarantees granted by the US Department of Energy (DOE). The Executive Board of Solar Millennium assumes that the Company will manage to meet all of these conditions, particularly the financial close for both power plants, by late summer this year.

Solar Trust of America expects to create some 1,000 direct jobs during the construction phase and several thousand indirect jobs through supplier relations. The two power plants are to be connected to the grid by 2014. The final building permit for all of the four power plants projected at the Blythe location had already been granted in autumn 2010.

The electricity generated in Blythe 1 and 2 will be purchased by the US utility Southern California Edison (SCE). As such, SCE meets the requirements by the state of California to increase the share of renewable energies in total power production. Since the beginning of the year, the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) force the Californian utilities to cover 33% of power generation with renewable energies by 2020.

 

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