The four sites are 50MW Low Farm in Skegness, 20MW Beavor Grange in Devon and two more 20MW farms in Derbyshire and Gloucestershire.
All four are planned for completion this year. Lifespans for each of 40 years will end with them being returned to their natural state.
Each site will benefit from an advanced biodiversity plan and significant ecological enhancements designed to support some of the UK’s most at-risk birds and wildlife, as well as native plant life. Wildflower meadows will be created, hedgerows and trees will be planted and bird and bat boxes installed.
Low Farm, the biggest site, is expected to register a net biodiversity gain of more than 130%.
Once operational, each PV farm will be monitored by Anesco’s operations and maintenance team,
Wayne Cranstone, Gresham House investment director, said: “We’re delighted to see our partnership with Anesco taking this important step forward with construction now officially underway on the first four projects. All four have been sensitively developed with strong attention to biodiversity, as well as a focus on quality construction to aid their performance and efficiency.”
The three year, 200MW, ground mount solar development and construction partnership is valued in excess of £100m and will comprise sites from 20MW to 50MW in generation capacity.
Anesco CEO Hildagarde McCarville enthused: “Through this partnership with Gresham House, we are delighted to be putting our end-to-end capabilities and expertise to good use, supporting the UK’s transition to a sustainable, low carbon energy network.
“Grid scale solar assets have a vital role to play, not only for aiding decarbonisation but for energy security, which are two of the most pressing challenges we face today. The ability to achieve this, whilst in parallel increasing the biodiversity net gain at these locations, reaffirms our corporate commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
Anesco oversees more than 140 utility scale projects in solar generation and power storage. Its operations and maintenance team manages more than 1.6GW of assets.
