Special solar-powered car parks where electric vehicles can be charged are to be set up in Scotland as part of a multi-million-pound UK trial. The consortium of energy experts behind the pioneering project is already considering several potential sites across the country, including council facilities, park and ride schemes, airports, offices and train stations. The group has now secured million of pounds in funding for the scheme, which will use solar panels and battery storage to charge cars and buses. Revolutionary vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology will also be employed at the hubs, allowing charged cars to feed electricity back to the smart grid where it can be used to power homes and businesses. The team believes managed integration of solar PV, electric vehicle charging and V2G systems at car parks and transport hubs can help the country meet its green transport goals. The project partners – which include demand response specialist Flexitricity, as well as Turbo Power Systems, Flexisolar and Smart Power Systems – are still seeking further sites to take part.
Scotsman 27th March 2019 read more »
Global solar developer Wirsol and UK-based Tribus Clean Energy have submitted plans for environmental approval to build what would be the UK’s largest solar PV site which would also include large-scale energy storage. The two companies, working jointly through Sunnica Energy, submitted its scoping report for the Sunnica Energy Farm which would consist of two solar farms, Sunnica East, located south of Worlington in West Suffolk, and Sunnica West, located south of Chippenham in East Cambridgeshire. The pair would connect to the UK’s national electricity transmission network and boast a nameplate capacity of 500 MW.
Renew Economy 27th March 2019 read more »
Following a number of schemes across Europe, in what is generally referred to as the post-subsidy phase of solar farm deployment, potentially the largest solar (and storage) site has now hit the headlines. The site – located across two sites in the Suffolk and Cambridgeshire regions of Eastern England – appears to be the brainchild of a joint venture between two companies well known to the incentive-based days of UK solar farm build-outs: Padero Solar / Grupo Solaer (including its UK arm PS Renewables) and former employees of greenfield UK solar developer Solar Associates; with the JV branded for this specific development under the aegis of Tribus Energy and the site SPV routing of Sunnica Energy. For now the JV appears to have engaged the infrastructure design and consulting company AECOM to facilitate initial screening/scoping procedures at the local planning authority level. Similar to other large-scale solar farms emerging in the UK post-subsidy, such as the Cleve Hill site, there is bound to be strong engagement from local parties at the screening stages. We can expect also broadsheet and tabloid press coverage to be intense during the coming weeks.
Solar Power Portal 26th March 2019 read more »
