Conergy Announces Community Based Project In Bristol
Conergy has announced that it will build and operate a new 21MWp solar farm near Bristol, with the local community set to benefit from a share of the revenues generated.
The solar farm will be built close to Frampton Cotterell, a village eight miles from Bristol city centre, on land between a golf course and a rugby club. In recent years the low grade (3A) agricultural land has been left fallow, planted with rapeseed or used for silage.
When completed in November, the power plant will produce enough electricity to power 3,750 homes, with the majority consumed locally. Over the expected 25 year lifetime of the plant, close to a quarter of a million tonnes of climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions will also be avoided through displacement of coal- and gas-fired power from the grid.
Conergy has designed the plant to maximize the efficient use of land, and panels will be elevated to allow sheep grazing underneath. The company has also committed to plant new hedgerows with mixed native species to encourage wildlife including hedgehogs, birds, dormice and bats, and to protect views from the neighbouring house.
Frampton Cotterell Parish Council will receive a revenue share from the electricity generated and sold to the grid, with money paid annually and allocated by Council trustees to "local causes". Over 25 years, the amounts could top £450,000 in today's money.
Robert Goss, MD Conergy UK, said: "The beauty of solar farms is that once built, they produce electricity for decades, without the need to buy, import, transport and burn polluting fuels. The Frampton Cotterell plant will secure the area's local energy supply, and villagers and visitors will benefit from a stream of local improvements."
The rights to the site were acquired by Conergy from Taunton-based developer Solar Power South in March this year, after South Gloucestershire Council gave its consent to the project in January.
Conergy has also announced that it has purchased rights to £200m of projects, through its subsidiary, Wirsol Solar, from Lumicity, for a range of UK projects.
