Solar farm

[Exfarmer]

same as these?

Ours have been operational now for a couple of years, and the operator is pleased with yields.

View attachment 1013375

doo these roll over and would be placed East West I assume. I wonder how they yield? Or are they a south placed and moved from summer to winter? Not come across them but my panels are all roof mounts so not up to speed on ground mounting. An East West Rolling over tracker would be a good thing as it produces a lot flatter power curve
I had assumed @Mr Noo was on about full blown trackers which I have seen and should in theory produce about twice the level of conventional

 

[jendan]

same as these?

Ours have been operational now for a couple of years, and the operator is pleased with yields.

View attachment 1013375

Can you still graze with sheep,or is it not worth it?

 

[MrNoo]

same as these?

Ours have been operational now for a couple of years, and the operator is pleased with yields.

View attachment 1013375

yes, these are just “resting” faced into prevailing wind so at max rotation the one way

 

[jendan]

Topical thread for me. Scottish Water who are Scotland’s biggest user of electricity and on a push to fit as many renewables connections to their sites as possible.
Got them coming out tomorrow for initial discussions about possible solar system they have identified to feed into their raw water pumping station on the farm.
800mm diameter pipe that takes water 8-9 miles uphill. Uses a huge amount of electricity when pumping. Was told 10 years ago by one of their employees that just switching the pumps on used £45k of electricity. Doesn’t run year round, mainly just in summer. In a wet one maybe never on at all.

No idea what they might be proposing. Same compound their pump house is within also contains an SSE 33kv substation.
Any ideas on what I should all be asking them? Guessing batteries to store it and feeding excess into the substation when not being used may be part of their plan. What else should I be asking about at this initial stage other than rental figure?

Talk of compulsory purchase for future solar on here a bit concerning. That‘s how their is a pumping station in the middle of the farm in the first place

Try and get a good land agent who wont rip you off,and get as much money off them as you can.

 

[steveR]

same as these?

Ours have been operational now for a couple of years, and the operator is pleased with yields.

View attachment 1013375

Be a bugger going down the alleys for topping and spraying jobs!!

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Be a bugger going down the alleys for topping and spraying jobs!!

How come? So long as they don’t move as your doing it, much easier to get close to legs when only one, unlike twin legs with no man land in the middle

 

[steveR]

How come? So long as they don’t move as your doing it, much easier to get close to legs when only one, unlike twin legs with no man land in the middle

Looks like long con rods between each set of panels, to operate the rotation?

Needs good "jumping" ewes to graze through.... some nice Easycares, or as @neilo calls them, goats!

Mind I will never forget when I was out trail riding in the Dales decades ago, tootling gently down a double drystone walled track and was met by (what I now know is a Blackie ewe) who looked aghast at this interloper* and went vertically upwards a good 5ft, onto the top of the wall, looked at me... then jumped off into the field... Like a bloody Harrier jumpjet!






* No quads on every farm in those days

 

[CORNFLAKE]

It would be interesting to know how much it costs per acre to install and run one of these large parks. I’m just thinking if they are offering say £1000/ac rent and an earlier post stated it should easily generate £10,000/ac income if not more. What would be the return on investment for the operating company compared to the landowners return.

 

[Veryfruity]

oo these roll over and would be placed East West I assume. I wonder how they yield? Or are they a south placed and moved from summer to winter? Not come across them but my panels are all roof mounts so not up to speed on ground mounting. An East West Rolling over tracker would be a good thing as it produces a lot flatter power curve
I had assumed @Mr Noo was on about full blown trackers which I have seen and should in theory produce about twice the level of conventional

They are east west. They move very slowly.

Can you still graze with sheep,or is it not worth it?

A shepherd is paid to keep his sheep here autumn and spring. They pay 500€/ha for this. Top stock.

 

[Veryfruity]

It would be interesting to know how much it costs per acre to install and run one of these large parks. I’m just thinking if they are offering say £1000/ac rent and an earlier post stated it should easily generate £10,000/ac income if not more. What would be the return on investment for the operating company compared to the landowners return.

Our Park is 18ha, half tables and half full trackers with fresnel lens modules. When we were negotiating the figure bandied about was 14M€.

Ours is a 9mw installation in the south of France I don’t know what that means in terms of out put and sales.

 

[MrNoo]

It would be interesting to know how much it costs per acre to install and run one of these large parks. I’m just thinking if they are offering say £1000/ac rent and an earlier post stated it should easily generate £10,000/ac income if not more. What would be the return on investment for the operating company compared to the landowners return.

Business rates will be more than the farmer receives for rent, I think the rent is one of the least expensive parts!
Ours is 88ac and I know for a fact that the funder (warrington) paid £15m towards it as my secretary opened bank letters that were delivered here for some reason by accident.
I dont know if more funding was required or not. But you can seriously see how the costs rack up, to be fair to Gridserve, from what I have seen it's all been done right, no corners cut and once mine is grassed down it will look very smart. Saw my first pair of English partridge in the park this morning which was a lovely sight.
I only wish we could have done more!!

 

[Exfarmer]

I am most definitely not in this league but I suspect install cost would be about £300K per Megawatt, which would be around 4 acres. But of course this is only the start, grid upgrades could double this!

 

[steveR]

Business rates will be more than the farmer receives for rent, I think the rent is one of the least expensive parts!
Ours is 88ac and I know for a fact that the funder (warrington) paid £15m towards it as my secretary opened bank letters that were delivered here for some reason by accident.
I dont know if more funding was required or not. But you can seriously see how the costs rack up, to be fair to Gridserve, from what I have seen it's all been done right, no corners cut and once mine is grassed down it will look very smart. Saw my first pair of English partridge in the park this morning which was a lovely sight.
I only wish we could have done more!!

Yep we have Greys in teh solar farm too... Wondering can I make it more badger proof.....

 

[steveR]

It would be interesting to know how much it costs per acre to install and run one of these large parks. I’m just thinking if they are offering say £1000/ac rent and an earlier post stated it should easily generate £10,000/ac income if not more. What would be the return on investment for the operating company compared to the landowners return.

In 2015/16, build here was around £1M/MW, but included a 3km underground cable to sub station.

Panels costs have dropped, but I imagine everything else has gone up!

 

[Spuddler]

Be a bugger going down the alleys for topping and spraying jobs!!

Be a pain for cleaning too!

 

[MrNoo]

Yep we have Greys in teh solar farm too... Wondering can I make it more badger proof.....

Our fence is pretty much down to floor level, not often see any badgers just foxes but will soon sort them out!

 

[steveR]

Our fence is pretty much down to floor level, not often see any badgers just foxes but will soon sort them out!

It is at ground level here, but ground variations mean there is the odd gap... Gates too.

Some Planners have insisted on access points for "large mammals" on some sites!!

 

[Doing it for the kids]

It would be interesting to know how much it costs per acre to install and run one of these large parks. I’m just thinking if they are offering say £1000/ac rent and an earlier post stated it should easily generate £10,000/ac income if not more. What would be the return on investment for the operating company compared to the landowners return.

It will be good bt the risks are insane. You might need £750k just to take one to planning With no idea how Successful it could be.

Heard of a story where an investor obtained planing for 200 acres by a motorway. The Access bridge over the motorway to it had a sign on with a huge weight restriction like 42 tons. Just after they got planning and were gearing up to make start a bloke turned up and took the weight limit sign down and put a 7.5t one up!

TurnEd out there had been an RTA under the bridge so to cover their backside the survey just changed the rating.

6 months later they have just had to pay a vast sum to a neighbour to get access as highways would not interact.

They are east west. They move very slowly.


View attachment 1013445

A shepherd is paid to keep his sheep here autumn and spring. They pay 500€/ha for this. Top stock.

Paid or he lays them?!

Business rates will be more than the farmer receives for rent, I think the rent is one of the least expensive parts!
Ours is 88ac and I know for a fact that the funder (warrington) paid £15m towards it as my secretary opened bank letters that were delivered here for some reason by accident.
I dont know if more funding was required or not. But you can seriously see how the costs rack up, to be fair to Gridserve, from what I have seen it's all been done right, no corners cut and once mine is grassed down it will look very smart. Saw my first pair of English partridge in the park this morning which was a lovely sight.
I only wish we could have done more!!

The rent is a tiny cost. The council love business rates on them.

English love them if you keep the fences taught!

In 2015/16, build here was around £1M/MW, but included a 3km underground cable to sub station.

Panels costs have dropped, but I imagine everything else has gone up!

Same. Since then the DNO are very good at dropping in on the 11th hr that they need another 5mil to upgrade the network, only just realised!

These developers need a lot on the go to get some risk spread. Hearing what they have to contend with is not for the feint hearted and these projects can take 2 yrs of coughing up massive cheques before they haveany idea how it’s going.

 

[Princess Pooper]

It will be good bt the risks are insane. You might need £750k just to take one to planning With no idea how Successful it could be.

Heard of a story where an investor obtained planing for 200 acres by a motorway. The Access bridge over the motorway to it had a sign on with a huge weight restriction like 42 tons. Just after they got planning and were gearing up to make start a bloke turned up and took the weight limit sign down and put a 7.5t one up!

TurnEd out there had been an RTA under the bridge so to cover their backside the survey just changed the rating.

6 months later they have just had to pay a vast sum to a neighbour to get access as highways would not interact.





Paid or he lays them?!



The rent is a tiny cost. The council love business rates on them.

English love them if you keep the fences taught!




Same. Since then the DNO are very good at dropping in on the 11th hr that they need another 5mil to upgrade the network, only just realised!

These developers need a lot on the go to get some risk spread. Hearing what they have to contend with is not for the feint hearted and these projects can take 2 yrs of coughing up massive cheques before they haveany idea how it’s going.

Was going to say the same. Like breeding pedigree stock or racehorses, the ones that get approval and make the big money have to pay for the ones that don't make it. Planning costs can be horrendous and then the application gets rejected. Some have grid upgrades as well as connection costs.