Rent per acre for ground solar?

[Andrew K]

Hi Andrew
I'm afraid that's a 'piece of string' question and as you can see from the post above it may well be down to postcodes.

The one thing I will say is that a commercially aware developer will be utilising the services of local planning consultants who in many cases have been council planning officers themselves. Planning for a large solar farm is costly and I'm sure they way up the percentages. There has also been a move of late to look favourably on land less suitable for traditional farming purposes.

May also be worth speaking with your local planning. I had a conversation with a planning officer from Chorley Borough Council last week and although it's only a 50kWp ground mount he was very helpful.

Cheers

Mike

Mike,
Was interested to compare with wind option really, we had to go to appeal on a 50KW Endurance recently, nine months of delay later the P Inspectorate found overwhelmingly in our favour, as did our planning officer in the first instance!. Council planning committees are full of ill informed, and often biased people who have never actually run a business in many cases.

 

[mikelaluz]

Mike,
Was interested to compare with wind option really, we had to go to appeal on a 50KW Endurance recently, nine months of delay later the P Inspectorate found overwhelmingly in our favour, as did our planning officer in the first instance!. Council planning committees are full of ill informed, and often biased people who have never actually run a business in many cases.

Hi Andrew

I'm not involved in turbine projects but know guys who are and in general have a pretty tough time in planning phase

I'm afraid your own experience mirrors many others and the problem is that there are always non professional councillors who can veto.

We are in a similar position (not renewables) where our Local Planning turned down planning permission for a school after initial planning had been given the green light. They were advised at the meeting by the Borough Solicitor that to object on grounds that had no legal standing would mean that the application would go to for appeal where it had a 99% chance of being passed and that the actions of the planning committee would cost the ,local council tax payers £100,000 - needless to say they turned it down for spurious reasons and the appeal is now under way.

We need root and branch reform of planning.

 

[Thick Farmer]

You're right Honest John it's all about the investment. I can only speak about Solar Farms but there is still huge interest in land rental for Solar Farms.

In essence the developers are looking for 6 acres per megawatt so preferably 12 acres plus, being close to overhead lines (11Kw lines are ideal) is critical as connection works out at £100 per meter. From a planning perspective your land should not be prime agricultural, should be private and not crossed by bridleways and footpaths. The land itself needs to be free draining and to be firm i.e. non sandy as concrete costs are totally prohibitive. Gently sloping land (south facing ideally) is fine and natural land contours will be followed by the developers so they're not looking for cricket pitches.

With the diminishing ROC's rate current rental based on the above criteria is £800 - £1000 per acre and the more of the boxes you tick the better.

In most cases you will not benefit from the generation as the developers will sign a one off purchase agreement and will not have the capability to branch off a portion of the supply to you.

If you want to explore some options or you are considering renting your land drop me a PM or give me a call.

Regards

Mike Smith
0796 462 9142

Mike,


I've got around 150 acres that may be suitable for solar panels.

We did a bit of homework last year and for a 20MW site at this location the grid connection is circa. £1.5 million.

Are you still interested? If so give me a shout.

 

[caveman]

Would think this is not far from the truth.
Generation from 9- 10,000,000 units worth about
6 p FIT plus 6p for green power so
£1.1m per annum

Just wait untill industrial rates are applied to such sites.
And then a special windfall tax on "the obscene profits" of generation of green energy.....................

 

[Exfarmer]

They already are rated industrially
I think anyone is going to struggle to find obscene profits in the green energy production
It is a stable long term guaranteed profit that is all
But it attracts the same sort of investors as buy to let

 

[Lincs Consultant]

As we are finding at the moment just because the site is close to the network doesn't always mean a cheap connection charge. I have just had a budget estimate back for a circa 1.5MW farm with a 33KV line running at the bottom of the field but....... DNO BE needs connecting 12.3KM into the main 132KV line at a charge of 7.2 million!!!

 

[rhifsaith]

We had offers ranging from £850 to £1600 per acre.

It all fell through though cos the connection to the grid came in at £1.4 million!

crickey..
why was it so much then?

 

[Thick Farmer]

crickey..
why was it so much then?

Not really sure. I think Western Power are treating these schemes as a licence to print money!

 

[pellow]

Not really sure. I think Western Power are treating these schemes as a licence to print money!

US owned company coining it in on a gold rush

 

[Lincs Consultant]

They are struggling with the inferstrure on 11KV and 33KV lines at the minute and everything seems to be heading back to the supergrid 132KV stations which is causing the increase in connections

 

[Honest john]

They are struggling with the inferstrure on 11KV and 33KV lines at the minute and everything seems to be heading back to the supergrid 132KV stations which is causing the increase in connections

We are connected to 11KV & 33KV.
Can you cover in more detail why the change to 132 KV ?
Also we have a 132 KV. Would the maths work with 100 acres of glass on the 132 KV.
I think it would be to small.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Lincs Consultant]

That is the issues I am having around south Lincolnshire at the current time, basically the whole of east Anglia area as limited connection capabilities left and all new connections are going into the 132KV lines as they have the larger reverse current carrying capacity.

In principle yes a 100 acre (20MW) farm would connect straight into the 132KV. What is the postcode and I will check what you have available near you

 

[Honest john]

That is the issues I am having around south Lincolnshire at the current time, basically the whole of east Anglia area as limited connection capabilities left and all new connections are going into the 132KV lines as they have the larger reverse current carrying capacity.

In principle yes a 100 acre (20MW) farm would connect straight into the 132KV. What is the postcode and I will check what you have available near you

We are tight also & on plug & play.
The post code I believe to be PE15 OAP. Prospect House Fm. Grid 132 KV.
I could get pylon nr if need be.

 

[MrNoo]

Been approached via Savills about 70 acres that a company maybe interested in developing, figures in the region of £900/acre being mentioned. We have a 33kv transformer nearby. What issues do I need to consider? IHT? Seems a bit low price wise but would make more than I could growing blackgrass!

 

[Exfarmer]

Certainly speak to a good accountant. The IHT issues can be avoided I believe, if handled properly.
Make sure there is a clause to revert to landlord if the company goes bust.
At the end of the lease I would favour returning the array to you as it should still be producing a lot of electricity.
I would absolutely favour not using concreted foundations, there are alternatives.
I think that level of rent is fair at the current levels of FIT, but do have inflation built into the rent

 

[Honest john]

Been approached via Savills about 70 acres that a company maybe interested in developing, figures in the region of £900/acre being mentioned. We have a 33kv transformer nearby. What issues do I need to consider? IHT? Seems a bit low price wise but would make more than I could growing blackgrass!

70 acres at 10k = 700k could be an IHT issue depending on your other none farming assets.
You could gift the field, or look at other ways around IHT.
Price is where the market is today depending on cost of grid connection.
You can come & vist our site, if it would help.

What about doing the project your self with the help of a professional?

 

[MrNoo]

Thanks John for the offer but early days here, just want to understand as many options as I can for now.
Don't fancy doing it myself, have enough fingers in too many pies as it is!
Will see what they have to say and report back.

 

[Honest john]

Thanks John for the offer but early days here, just want to understand as many options as I can for now.
Don't fancy doing it myself, have enough fingers in too many pies as it is!
Will see what they have to say and report back.

We didn't get the planning / grid ourselves.
But there are people out there now that can do the job for you.
Prob one on here. From Lincs.
Someone will have checked the grid out before making contact.
Good luck.

 

[Farmer Solar Adviser]

You should be getting 4k per acre or more which is what we give our landlords.

 

[MrNoo]

You should be getting 4k per acre or more which is what we give our landlords.

4K/acre ground rent for solar PV???