TGC Renewables Grants Planning Permission for 3.4 MW Solar Installation

The well known renewable energy developer, TGC Renewables, just managed to get permission to start planning a 3.8 MW solar park near Hyle, Cornwall.

 Originally called The Green Company, TGC was founded by Ben Cosh and Rob Denman, their goal was to have an impact on climate change and energy security for the future, by making solar/wind energy financially viable and accessible to everyone, in order to preserve their way of life, without making radical changes.

The company was backed by a leading UK investment house, established in the UK for over 125 years, the Constantine Group, with a huge international experience in finance and investments, they now have offices all around the United Kingdom and a lot of experts which offer the full range of skills  and expertise to cover all the stages of any solar project.

TGC works mainly with farmers and landowners, who have diversified their venues by investments in renewable energies of their own or they lease their land for other people developments/projects.

 This new project will take place on a 6.2 hectares of local class 3b agricultural grazing land, the land owner, a farmer, will get a guaranteed rental income for the usual 25 years and TGC estimated that the 3.8 MW solar farm will be able to provide almost 800 local residences with renewable energy for the decades to come.

Mr. Roy Amner, the director at TGC Renewables commented about the planning permission, he stated that:

“We are delighted that after detailed consultation with all interested parties, our planning team secured the full support of the Strategic Planning Committee for this development.”

The solar farm will use about 1200 solar photo voltaic modules and 20 racking tables, the project will allow the farmer to graze its livestock across the park while in operation.

For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime:  

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

UK's Largest Solar Farm Will Be Developed by Science Museum and Swindon Council

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:  

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

UK at risk to lose investments from the Energy Giants

The major players on the energy market are disappointed by George Osborne’s attempts to water down  the Government’s green commitments. The 7 major companies in the game wrote a letter which was obtained by The Times, they warn that these unfortunate policies  are seriously damaging the investment prospects in the UK.

 The companies I am talking about are global corporations,  electricity and nuclear  technology related, between the 7 I have to mention Siemens, the German engineering giant, Alstom UK, Mitsubishi Power Systems and four other companies, which together employ 17,500 people in the British energy sector.
They  told The Times that they will have to cut their investment plans in the future, millions of pounds in the next years because of the scale back in the green energy sector by the Government.

They said that they will have to “to re-assess the level of political risk in the UK.”  And their future business plans and investments are ““critically dependent on a long-term policy framework.”

The letter was addressed to Ed Davey, signed by Siemens, Vestas, Gamesa, Alstom UK, Mitsubishi Power Systems, Doosan and Areva, states that :

“Historically the UK has benefitted from being known as a country with low political risk for energy investments. Undermining that reputation would have damaging consequences for the scale of future investments in the UK energy sector.”

They also ask for “a binding 2030 target for power sector decarbonisation.” Also, the industry giants propose a target that “would help reduce the political risk currently associated with long-term industrial investment.”  

The future investments in the United Kingdom’s infrastructure from these industry giants  were threatened by the Chancellor’s support for gas development and also by the disregard of environmental policies which were altered by the cuts  to the feed-in tariff scheme of the solar industry.

It’s true that Mr. Osborne, at a Conservative Party Conference, engaged himself in “opening up the shale gas reserves” underneath the UK by offering “a generous new tax regime for shale gas in the UK.”

 Mr. Gaynor Hartnell,  Chief Executive of the REA, made the following statement  regarding this new policy :

 “It is now or never for the Coalition Government. We have the resource potential and engineering and financial expertise to be a global leader in renewables – but a lack of clarity from Government risks leaving us stuck at the back of the pack.
“Mainstream businesses, from our supermarkets to the big blue chip tech firms, know that renewables are the way forward for UK plc. This is not about saving the planet, it’s about businesses planning for the future and maintaining their competitiveness in the 21st century.”

For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime:

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/