Connected on June 30th, the Charity Farm installation, in Shropshire, has an installed capacity of 11.94 MW and was one of five solar projects to win support in the first round of CfD auctions last year – the mechanism which replaced the Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC) scheme for projects over 5 MW.
Guaranteed payment of £79.23/MWh
The CfDs work by offering stable revenue for electricity generators at a fixed level – known as the ‘strike’ price. Generators – such as Lightsource – receive income from selling electricity to the grid as normal, but when that rate drops below the agreed ‘strike’ price they receive a top up fee from the government. Charity Farm won its contract with a strike price of £79.23 per megawatt hour (93.73 €). All power generated by the project will be purchased by supplier Axpo UK Limited in a deal worth £7.5 million (8.87 million €) over seven years.
71.55 MW of solar projects CfD awarded
A total of 71.55 MW of solar projects were awarded CfDs in 2015 and the Lightsource project is the first solar CfD project to be delivered. Lightsource teamed up with premier EPC contractor Biosar Energy (UK) Limited to install the project – with both teams drawing on their extensive experience and technical expertise to complete the project in just over two months.
UK government should take solar seriously
With respect to the planned non-renewal of the CfD scheme by the new UK government Nick Boyle, CEO at Lightsource, said: “A truly competitive system is fair to all concerned, but there has been no new round of auctions announced for solar as yet and, if the UK is serious about the future of its energy security, it is important that this is addressed. Great strides have been made in the industry and we firmly believe that solar has a significant role to play in the overall UK energy mix.” (HCN)
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