COVERING GOOD FOOD GROWING LAND WITH SOLAR PANELS?

[Hilly]

now that will give the nimby’s something to flap about!

I’d have a row of them right up the middle of the country .

 

[steveR]

I’d have a row of them right up the middle of the country .

Following HS2, eh?

 

[Hilly]

Following HS2, eh?

No I just put them where needed, is hs2 ?

 

[GeorgeC1]

Solar farms are hideous.
I’d rather live next to a housing or industrial estate. At least they are providing jobs and/or housing. Put them on roofs for goodness sake.

Massively affect the public perception of farmers too- a farmer near put one in and ten years later half the village still won’t speak to them. It’s not a big community either. Is it really worth it?

Who cares what ignorant nimbys think, they're the cause of quite a few problems

 

[Highland Mule]

I’d have a row of them right up the middle of the country .

Better if they have a source of seawater for cooling, so maybe up one side (I don't care which one so you can choose).

 

[warksfarmer]

The way these things work, the only people who have got their money , will be the original developer. They will then have sold the farm on to a pension fund, or some such, who will have paid a phenomenal sum in the expectation of a 20-25 rock solid return.
If the government do chop the subs it will be future pensioners who take the hit .

Even those ones are profitable if you take the subs out. Not by a lot but they’ll still make 10-15% annually after all costs.

 

[Exfarmer]

Even those ones are profitable if you take the subs out. Not by a lot but they’ll still make 10-15% annually after all costs.

Depends how much you paid for it. These things are sold on as going investments and the rate of return is some times negiligible. A lot of turbines were sold on by a certain company and bought by a hedge fund. I know what they paid, I don’t suppose they will return the investment if they had a hundred years of FIT.

 

[warksfarmer]

Depends how much you paid for it. These things are sold on as going investments and the rate of return is some times negiligible. A lot of turbines were sold on by a certain company and bought by a hedge fund. I know what they paid, I don’t suppose they will return the investment if they had a hundred years of FIT.

We shouldn’t really be quoting ‘acres’ thinking about it because it should be income per MW. Some sites have more panels per acre than others due to location and topography.

They’ll no doubt be bad examples but if these agreements were done properly then the landowner/landlord should be returning £25,000/MW/YEAR (approx £5000/ac/YEAR) over the duration of the panels being in place.

The developer/owner would be in the region of £130,000-£150,000/MW/YEAR (approx £25,000/acre/YEAR).

All before costs.

 

[steveR]

No I just put them where needed, is hs2 ?

Depends on who you ask....

 

[Hilly]

Better if they have a source of seawater for cooling, so maybe up one side (I don't care which one so you can choose).

Alternate them !

 

[Veryfruity]

Nuclear is expensive, government guaranteed Hinkley point at 11.3€ Cents kwhr my solar is generating at less than 4cents.
But not much good at night

You never really finish paying for nuclear.

 

[Highland Mule]

Nuclear is expensive, government guaranteed Hinkley point at 11.3€ Cents kwhr my solar is generating at less than 4cents.
But not much good at night

You never really finish paying for nuclear.

How much did your solar generate last night? And your solar is poor at that too - I know of plenty making 50p/unit on a Government guaranteed rate

 

[Veryfruity]

How much did your solar generate last night? And your solar is poor at that too - I know of plenty making 50p/unit on a Government guaranteed rate

I was just making the point that solar has become very competitive.

My tenant gets 12,4 cents from EDF. The simple single axe tracker panels can produce for a cost of 3.8c in my region. These are 2016 prices.

Here in France they have moved away from guaranteed FIT and now do a sealed bid system, with different ‘guide’ prices depending on the technology, latitude and system. They want innovation as well as power.

All the different methods of power generation have their drawbacks.