BayWa R.e. Sells 24 MWp Solar Park In England To CEE
BayWa r.e. has sold the Aston Clinton solar park in England to CEE, an associated company from Hamburg. BayWa r.e. will take over the technical operations management of the park, which has a capacity of 24.2 megawatt peak.
Located in Aylesbury, around 40 miles north-west of London, the project was completed in the spring and was connected to the public grid under the ROC scheme. The plant is financed by à„rzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe (à„VWL). Aston Clinton has now been transferred to the new owner. Matthias Taft, Member of the Board of BayWa AG, responsible for the energy business, explained: "Aston Clinton is now the third PV project that we have successfully sold to CEE, and in so doing, we are pleased to be able to continue our close and mutually beneficial collaboration. We remain involved in the project by managing its operation, too." Detlef Schreiber, CEO of CEE added: "BayWa r.e. is a proven, experienced and financially sound partner for further activities in Great Britain."
As with Pingewood, the UK solar park sold by BayWa r.e. in September, the company was able to secure a long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the project. This PPA provides for sale of the power generated at a fixed price over a period of 20 years. The purchaser is once again McDonald's Restaurant Ltd. The company's 1250 UK restaurants obtain around 4% of their annual electricity demand from this solar park. This equates to a total of 45 restaurants that are being supplied exclusively with clean power.
BayWa r.e. remains highly active in the British market. To date, the company has constructed solar and wind farms in the UK with a total capacity of over 260 MW. The Vine Farm solar park (45 MWp), currently under construction in eastern England, is the largest single project that BayWa r.e. has accomplished in the solar sector to date. In total, BayWa r.e. has forthcoming PV projects totalling around 130 MW to be realised in the UK in the coming months.
