Rent per acre for ground solar?

[Daniel]

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

Your website says you pay up to £1400 an acre?

 

[Farmer Solar Adviser]

Your website says you pay up to £1400 an acre?

Yep that's a minimum but you can get a lot more

 

[Honest john]

You won't have a problem getting ground at that rent.
Is that for a site with planning & grid ?

 

[Exfarmer]

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

think someone is mixing hectares, acres and the date

 

[Farmer Solar Adviser]

Your website says you pay up to £1400 an acre?

That's when the developer takes all the development profit - the problem is that landlords aren't getting access to the full picture and I do mean 4k per acre not HCTS. The developer fee could be as much as 10% of the capex. Farmers need to be aware that they should first of all understand there are two key components - planning and grid connection. It doesn't cost anything to put in a DNO request for grid connection, when the offer is made if a deposit is paid this can be recovered if the planning doesn't go through. The risk is on the landlord in my view because they are handing over a fortune to funders unnecessarily.

 

[Exfarmer]

FSA
Note that you have not responded to comments on the other thread re rents
Perhaps you would condescend to explain in financial terms how you can justify paying £4,000 per acre rent

 

[warksfarmer]

FSA
Note that you have not responded to comments on the other thread re rents
Perhaps you would condescend to explain in financial terms how you can justify paying £4,000 per acre rent

I would think its along the lines of the fact that each acre can earn over £100k/year from elec sold and fit/roc?

 

[Honest john]

I would think its along the lines of the fact that each acre can earn over £100k/year from elec sold and fit/roc?

Dear Lee.

Rent 1,000 acre.
Rates 750 acre.
Dep. 6,400 acre ( 160 K acre over 25 years. )
Grid 400
Total 8,550 acre.
Maintenance planning clear up costs on top.
Now if lee is correct we should be building them our selfs for sure.

 

[warksfarmer]

Dear Lee.

Rent 1,000 acre.
Rates 750 acre.
Dep. 6,400 acre ( 160 K acre over 25 years. )
Grid 400
Total 8,550 acre.
Maintenance planning clear up costs on top.
Now if lee is correct we should be building them our selfs for sure.

Well what I said was more of a question than a definitive answer but that was the figure I was told by an agent dealing with a big 50+ acre system.

As for building it yourself then I'm led to believe a 70ac development would cost £10 million? Borrowing that kind of cash isn't easy.

 

[Daniel]

If there is money in it, most farmers could borrow £1 million so why not put down 5 acres/1mw or so off your own back and keep all the profit?

 

[Exfarmer]

Lee
an acre of PV will cost anything from £200 -£240,000
including planning, legal fees, DNO upgrades etc

This depends on the amount of panels anything from 175 -200 KWp install (5-6 acres per megawatt)
Assume 175 KWp cost £200K
This will produce Approximately 170,000 units per year ( on a very good site)
Value approximately 4.7 p per unit = £7,990
This will also attract ROCs at the rate of 1.6 Rocs per Megawatt = 1.6 X 170 =282.2 Rocs
Each Roc worth approximately £42.20 = £11,908.84

gross output £19,898.84 which is a little short of £100,000 per acre
For small installs using Fits out put is marginally more
Then you have charges
Insurance
£4.00 / Kw installed = £700
Rates = £672
cleaning ?
maintenance ?
Replacement ?
etc
Amortisation of the outlay on this would be about 8% before rent
still sure you want to pay £4,000

There were certainly sites in the early days where these rents and more were paid
But then the subsidies were in the order of 30p / KWH

 

[Exfarmer]

Well what I said was more of a question than a definitive answer but that was the figure I was told by an agent dealing with a big 50+ acre system.

As for building it yourself then I'm led to believe a 70ac development would cost £10 million? Borrowing that kind of cash isn't easy.

Lee
Perhaps the agent does not know what he was talking about
is that anything new ?

 

[warksfarmer]

Lee
Perhaps the agent does not know what he was talking about
is that anything new ?

As I said it was more of a question as I was not sure but we have a roof system so have an idea of insurance, cleaning, maintenance which I would put at no more than £2,000/year. Replacement of parts is a bit of an unknown although in Germany they report 0.25%/year of capex for maintenance and 1%/year of capex for inverters and panels. These were on systems coming up towards 20 years old? You will have an idea on that though I guess?

 

[Exfarmer]

The inverters is obviously the big question
We have seen comments on here of inverters being replaced very regularly
but I have got 12 and so far touch wood no issues.
But my oldest is 3 years.

The other issue is cleaning, I think most people agree cleaning is essential, but quotes up to a £1 a panel are off-putting to say the least. That would be .4% alone but of course, I believe, ground mounts in a large field should come a lot less than that

I hope to keep my maintenance bill below yours but I am unsure how big yours is

 

[Daniel]

Our 50kw ground mount seems fairly self cleaning?

 

[warksfarmer]

The inverters is obviously the big question
We have seen comments on here of inverters being replaced very regularly
but I have got 12 and so far touch wood no issues.
But my oldest is 3 years.

The other issue is cleaning, I think most people agree cleaning is essential, but quotes up to a £1 a panel are off-putting to say the least. That would be .4% alone but of course, I believe, ground mounts in a large field should come a lot less than that

I hope to keep my maintenance bill below yours but I am unsure how big yours is

We are not spending 2k per year and so far after 4 years nearly total spend has been £430/year which includes the insurance, cleaning and normal maintenance.

 

[Exfarmer]

We are not spending 2k per year and so far after 4 years nearly total spend has been £430/year which includes the insurance, cleaning and normal maintenance.

Lee
If yours is 50KWp then it would match my figures very closely

 

[Exfarmer]

Our 50kw ground mount seems fairly self cleaning?

I would guess that a lot depends on area of country, local dust, rainfall etc
Have you tried the Klenex test
Damp a tissue and wipe it across the surface.
We are not hoping to wash too often, probably once in April and again July
To catch the summer sun

 

[warksfarmer]

Lee
If yours is 50KWp then it would match my figures very closely

Sorry I should of said 70kw.

 

[Honest john]

Lee
an acre of PV will cost anything from £200 -£240,000
including planning, legal fees, DNO upgrades etc

This depends on the amount of panels anything from 175 -200 KWp install (5-6 acres per megawatt)
Assume 175 KWp cost £200K
This will produce Approximately 170,000 units per year ( on a very good site)
Value approximately 4.7 p per unit = £7,990
This will also attract ROCs at the rate of 1.6 Rocs per Megawatt = 1.6 X 170 =282.2 Rocs
Each Roc worth approximately £42.20 = £11,908.84

gross output £19,898.84 which is a little short of £100,000 per acre
For small installs using Fits out put is marginally more
Then you have charges
Insurance
£4.00 / Kw installed = £700
Rates = £672
cleaning ?
maintenance ?
Replacement ?
etc
Amortisation of the outlay on this would be about 8% before rent
still sure you want to pay £4,000

There were certainly sites in the early days where these rents and more were paid
But then the subsidies were in the order of 30p / KWH

I think lee is a little mixed up with his post.
£100,000 per meg is what he would have been told. 1 meg on 5 acres approx.
So that is about the same as Exfarmers £19,898 acre. Gross output.
In my post I worked out approx £9,000 of costs rent included.
So there is still another £10 K to cover finance.
So plenty in it if you take the risk it seems.
10/11K acre for rent & Finance.
Am I in the right ball park ???