Plans for largest solar farm in UK here in NI

qwert_yuiop

Decommissioning I'd say is a minor problem. We're not talking Chernobyl here.
It's the subsidy gravy train that worries me. The wind business has been analysed in public recently following the spat that english bloke who set up ecotricity had with his abandoned wife. Seems his £70 million fortune is largely the product of government generosity, and this hAs led to cuts in subsidies for on shore wind power - the cabinet have suddenly taken notice.
As you can tell, I'm only annoyed I didn't think of starting a wind power company back then. Too busy working.

RikM

Er, solar? In NI? Kind of like a windfarm on the moon... Now if they could generate power from drizzle...

qwert_yuiop

RikM wrote: »

Er, solar? In NI? Kind of like a windfarm on the moon... Now if they could generate power from drizzle...

Well, hydroelectric plants work off falling water?

qwert_yuiop

donglemouse wrote: »

my understanding is basically yes it's another subsidy extraction scheme as you put it

and the ni is more generous on subsidy than the rest of the uk at this point, so coupled with our less regulated planning (versus the rest of uk) and that's why the province is now a magnet for solar farm developers

hence my concern for the province given we haven't a clue how much capacity we have approved or how much is in the application pipeline nor are we asking for de-commissioning bonds

If it is an effective means of generating electricity economically, given enough of these, we could then close a power station. Can't see it somehow.

RikM

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

If it is an effective means of generating electricity economically, given enough of these, we could then close a power station. Can't see it somehow.

Um probably not. Not without dealing with the timing issues. You'd need one mother of a big battery array, just to deal with "night" (which, oddly enough is when we need the power most). And that's without going into how you have to balance the grid with solar in the mix. Or wind, for that matter.
Power stations can be designed to deal with variable load, solar and wind instead may act to exacerbate the variability, as you can't just turn them on at need. They're on when they want to be.

I suspect this could properly be termed "subsidy farming"...

qwert_yuiop

RikM wrote: »

Um probably not. Not without dealing with the timing issues. You'd need one mother of a big battery array, just to deal with "night" (which, oddly enough is when we need the power most). And that's without going into how you have to balance the grid with solar in the mix. Or wind, for that matter.
Power stations can be designed to deal with variable load, solar and wind instead may act to exacerbate the variability, as you can't just turn them on at need. They're on when they want to be.

I suspect this could properly be termed "subsidy farming"...

Well indeed. I'm sure you're aware of the alcohol distilleries in the American mid west where maize is turned into alcohol to add to petrol? They use more oil than they save - an energy sink. However, Bush in his brilliance thought they'd be worth subsidising. Arguably, his second worst decision.(The first being invading Iraq.) Reminds me of that.

zeupater

donglemouse wrote: »

... Folks plans are afoot to build the largest solar farm in the UK here in the sleepy Northern Irish greenfield countryside of Country Antrim

Whilst renewable energy isn’t a bad thing at all with panels on roofs, brownfield land and blended into the environment, destroying 250 acres of countryside for a solar farm isn’t something I can support

Sadly our planning laws are weaker than the rest of the UK and thus we are a target for non-local speculators

More info here www.kellsvocal.com and if you support please sign the petition

https://www.change.org/p/department-of-enviroment-ni-refuse-planning-permission-for-elgin-energy-s-application-to-build-a-250-acre-solar-power-plant-in-rural-kells-ec08bd04-fd1e-48ba-a98a-d569cd766262?just_created=true ...

Hi

As this has also been posted on the 'Green & Ethical Forum', here's a link to my thoughts as given there ....

HTH
Z

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

Just looked at the link provided and had a 'drive' around the proposed site on G00gle 5treetview and looked at aerial views going back to 2001 ....

Looks like the area is mainly a mix of pasture land and poor pasture/semi-scrub bordering on moorland, and some poorly drained semi-bog(?) serviced by a number small lanes with mixed hedgerow ... to the west of the site there is an existing pretty large electricity substation complex (hence the site selection) .... so very little of the land concerned seems to be used for arable with a good proportion having little productive arable potential (to see) and currently a relatively low-density population of cattle/sheep ....

Considering the height of the camera-car's camera (2.5m+), it's likely that the panels would be obscured from anyone travelling in a standard passenger vehicle for a pretty high proportion of the route around the site, particularly if there's a hedgerow planting/restoration scheme operated by the developer ....

We've had a number of solar farms (/parks) pop-up around us recently and there's been similar opposition .... two 5MWp system are within a 5 minute drive (30 minute walk) of where I'm sitting and unless you know they're there and specifically looked you'd struggle to see them ... draw a circle with a 10 miles radius of our home and you'd currently include few more 5MWp systems and a 20MWp system ... the 20MWp system is almost invisible from anywhere, there was a sign beside the road which stated 'site for proposed ...' for some time, followed by a '.... site entrance' sign, which after some time prompts you to wonder whether they've started yet and how it's going on, so you slow right down to glimpse the area through gaps in the hedgerow and discover that there are literally tens-of-thousands of panels there already ....

Opposition around here has totally gone, most who were whipped-up into the anti-campaign probably wonder what all the fuss was about now they've seen how un-obtrusive the installations actually are. There is currently a proposal for another small site (~2MWp) a couple of miles away which seems to be going through planning without much (/any?) public opposition, however, a development about 20 miles to the South currently seems to be stirring up a similar level of opposition to that around here 12-18months ago, but I'd expect that a simple 'fact-finding' trip from those affected will see the proposal go-ahead ...

It's great looking at models, aerial photography or artist impressions - however how often would anyone be able to (/forced to) view from those vantage points ...

HTH
Z

RikM

I'm not sure the appearance of the thing is of much interest, to most of us.

On the other hand, the thought that this is just another government scheme for transferring tax payer cash to businessmen, without any real benefits - that's a possible topic for griping

Mistral001

Does anybody here know if the grant for this project is coming from the NI budget or direct from Westminster?

qwert_yuiop

RikM wrote: »

I'm not sure the appearance of the thing is of much interest, to most of us.

On the other hand, the thought that this is just another government scheme for transferring tax payer cash to businessmen, without any real benefits - that's a possible topic for griping

Do you think the benefits will be capped at £23,000?