There are certain plans from the Science Museum to install the biggest solar farm in the United Kingdom, at its object store in Wroughton, Wiltshire.
If the project gets the required approval, it will become the biggest solar array in the country, overtaking the current largest solar farm in the United Kingdom, which is the Lark's Energy proposed 32 MW solar park at Wymeswold Airfield, in Leicestershire.
The Science Museum intends to install a 40 MW solar array on 80 ha of land at its Wroughton facility, working closely with Swindon Commercial Services, a company which is the property of Swindon Borough Council.
The well known Science Museum, located in London, can only make available to the general public just a small fraction of its collection at one time, for storing the entire collection they use the now obsolete airfield in Wroughton. The project will install over 160 000 photo voltaic modules across the airfield's land and also will allow the group to be as green as it gets, effectively carbon neutral, at least that's what the Science Museum predicts, regarding their large scale solar installation.
The Wroughton campus is a minor consumer of electricity, yet the Kensington base of the museum is a heavy power user, and Mr. Matt Moore, the Sustainability Manager for the Science Museum told us that the solar installation will showcase British engineering capabilities.
Mr. James Owen, Swindon Commercial Services’ Project Manger, stated that out of service airfield at Wroughton was an excellent location for developing a solar park, thanks to the combination of light industrial and low quality agricultural land, and the public will be consulted about the project for the first time on January 26, the current year.
Mr. Owen has high hopes for the local community to embrace the high tech development in the near future, he told us:
“There’s no point in it being one way; I want people to support the park. The land will stay in agricultural use: currently it is used for grazing sheep and I want to keep it that way.”
Actually, Mr. Owen has a surprise for the local farmers, as he intends to graze a local breed, the very rare Cotswolds sheep on the land, a long forgotten sight to the local community.
This breed of sheep is farmed for the wool, not for the meat and Mr. Owen's plan is to use the wool produced from the Cotswolds as insulation for the local residences.
Regarding the large scale solar market, Mr. Owen thinks that a few projects made compromises on quality, in order to be able to connect to the grid, to meet the time deadlines, yet he is pretty sure that the troubles of the solar industry are now a thing of the past, he told us confidently:
“With the new RO rates up till 2017 you will be left with a sustainable return on investment which will get rid of dubious suit-wearers from the City that don’t know anything and want too much return – leaving the rest of us to develop a sustainable, sensible part of the UK energy mix.”
“I think the industry needs sensible investors looking for sensible returns on a par, or better than, a government bond.”
For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime:
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu