Planning permission secured for UK's largest solar project
TGC Renewables, an independent renewable energy project developer, has secured planning approval for the largest UK solar project in the UK to date.
As solar projects become more ambitious and are able to be supported under the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) mechanism, TGC Renewables is able to work with landowners keen to diversify their incomes and provide a regular supply of clean electricity to the national grid.
The 8MW project will provide the South-West of England farm with a guaranteed rental income over the next 25 years, and enough electricity to power 2,500 homes.
With the South-West benefiting from high levels of sunshine and solar radiation, ground mounted photovoltaic (PV) developments now enable solar energy to be produced at a multi-megawatt scale.
The 27,924 PV panels will be installed over five interconnected fields on a site comprising 15.4 hectares, near South Brent in South Devon.
TGC Renewables has worked closely with the landlord and the local authorities to develop the site – through its dedicated in-house development team – including project management, legal, financial and electrical support.
“This project is one of a number of large multi-MW schemes we have in development as we respond to the interest and demand from the farming community for renewable energy,” said Rob Denman, Director of TGC Renewables. "With our in-house expertise, we can take the project through the entire development cycle from feasibility through to grid connection. We now have over 10MWs in operation or construction and with plans to increase this to over 100MWs over the next 18 months. The main challenge is finding sites that are suitable and that meet the tough criteria that are required to obtain all the required permits. TGC Renewables was the first dedicated large scale solar developer in the UK and over the past three years that we have been involved in UK solar, we have overcome all the challenges and now have in-house expertise across the skill set and know what it takes to develop world class solar projects.”
Richard Buckpitt, the landowner of the site who selected TGC Renewables commented: “We had been looking to diversify the farm’s income for a while, so taking the opportunity to develop a large scale solar project made financial sense. We know TGC Renewables as a firm with a number of other local developments and are aware of its reputation and track record in secured planning approval for its projects.”
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