Norway’s state-owned renewables generator Statkraft is seeking planners’ permission to develop two solar parks in Yorkshire and Suffolk. A combined investment in excess of £125 million is budgeted.
Last week the company submitted an application for a 49.99 MWp PV farm near Allerthorpe, in the East Riding. Soay Solar Farm is intended to meet the power needs of a potential 18,500 homes.
The bid is linked with a second project, a Greener Grid Park. The storage facility will ease local choke points which slow admission of green power on to the nation’s grid.
Statkraft UK’s project director Charlotte Healey hailed the two projects as “entirely complimentary.” Given the planners’ blessing, construction could begin next year.
In Bramford, Suffolk the firm want to press ahead with Greybarn, a 29 MWp PV park covering 44 hectares. Battery storage rated at 104 MW will smooth peaks and troughs in output projected at 41 GWh each year, equivalent to the consumption of 9,200 homes.
On the Isle of Wight, Wight Community Energy is to receive a grant of £ 58,427 from funders Power to Change to underpin staff costs, and embark on green power demonstration projects such as an EV community charging project, Cargo Delivery by e-Bikes, and green heated water for tourist accommodation.
Power to Change was seed-funded with £150 million from the National Lottery. In November it donated £68,250 to assist in managing the co-operative’s 3.95MWp solar farm at Shalfleet on the island.
