Hive Energy, one of the UK’s leading developers of solar parks, announced that it has successfully completed the pre-construction development of nine new solar parks with a total output of 60 Mega Watts (MW).
Once operational the parks will provide sufficient power for 18,180 homes annually1 (around the same size as Dorchester) and prevent 25,800 tonnes of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere each year2 (the same amount of CO2 absorbed annually by 9,923 acres of woods3, or nine times the size of Sherwood Forest).
The solar parks, which use photovoltaic (PV) technology and vary in output from 3MW to 15MW, will be built in Hampshire, Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, and Devon4. Much of the land could remain in agricultural production through sheep grazing and hay cropping.
These solar parks represent a pound 72M investment, 73%5 of which is overseas investment, in the UK’s future energy security. All nine solar parks are expected to be constructed and energizing the National Grid with clean, green, renewable solar energy before April 2013.
“The Government has set a challenging opportunity for the delivery of 22 Giga Watts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation by 2020 and I am pleased to announce Hive Energy’s contribution to this target,” said Giles Redpath, CEO of Hive Energy. “As we are at around only 1.3GW6 of solar PV now, I urge the Government to be cautious about reducing the Renewable Obligation Certificates incentive too quickly or deeply so that we can continue to drive towards their 22GW target in a sustainable, planned and deliverable way.”
Hive Energy also announced that it has a further six 10-25MW solar parks in planning in Suffolk, Essex, Wiltshire and Devon. These solar parks will add a further 108MW of output, sufficient to power an additional 32,724 homes and prevent an additional 46,440 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Planning decisions on these solar parks are expected by early February 2013.
