Primrose Solar announced it has acquired 5MW Merston Solar Farm near Chichester from Solstice Renewables.
Solstice and Mongoose Energy are working together on a transaction for Mongoose to acquire the other half of the farm.
Once complete, Merston Solar Farm should therefore become one of the first “5 and 5” schemes in the UK in line with the government’s ‘shared-ownership’ framework for renewable energy projects.
The two projects of 10 hectares each were developed by Solstice Renewables and planning consent was granted by Chichester District Council in March 2015.
Primrose Solar will start construction immediately and will operate the 5MW site as a commercial project as part of its portfolio of UK solar farms.
Giles Clark, CEO, Primrose Solar, said, “Merston is likely to be one of the UK’s first solar farms to be built under the government’s new shared-ownership framework. However, it’s a shame that reductions in the feed-in tariff and changes in government policy mean that very few shared-ownership solar farms will get built.”
According to Clark, this sort of commercial-community partnership is a key way for the industry to grow in a sustainable way.
A program of ecological and biodiversity enhancement will be implemented at the site and it will stay in agricultural usage with sheep grazing among the panels for part of the year. Primrose will also be continuing Solstice’s program of educational benefits for local schools.
Solarcentury has been appointed to build the solar farm. Construction will begin shortly. The 5 MW solar farm will generate enough energy to supply the equivalent of 1500 typical homes and save an estimated 2,150 tons of carbon dioxide a year.
Rajani Baburajan
editor@greentechlead.com