The Ketton Cement Solar Farm is located just outside the village of Ketton on a former quarry, in the county of Rutland in the United Kingdom. The solar farm is 12 MW in size and is on land adjacent to and owned by the cement factory. It is a rare example of a ground mount onsite private wire PPA.
100 percent self-consumption
The project is currently 100 percent self-consumption for Hanson Cement, but a connection to the local distribution grid exists as a back-up. A third of the power is provided to Hanson free of charge (in lieu of land rental payments) and the rest is sold at a fixed PPA price.
Coverage of over 13 percent of the power demand
Over the course of the project lifetime the solar farm will reduce the cement factory’s energy bill by approximately 10million GBP, although the main driver for the project was reducing CO2 emissions. Overall the project generates enough energy to cover 13 percent of the cement work’s annual demand. The project was developed by Lark Energy in partnership with Armstrong Energy and Hanson Cement, who own the cement factory. The funding was provided by Downing.
Minimising the need for a 33kV distribution grid upgrade
Lark Energy designed the solar farm to enable active and reactive power management and to protect the grid from reverse current. This has a number of advantages, including minimising the need for costly 33kV distribution grid upgrade work, reducing the energy costs for Hanson and enabling the inverters to be used as capacitor batteries storage at night. This was the first time inverters had been used in this way in the UK. (HCN)
Also check our exclusive interview with the author of SolarPower Europe`s report:http://www.pveurope.eu/News/Markets-Money/Mitigating-financing-risks-is-key
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