Agrivoltaics Deal To Bring 9,000 Sheep To 1GW Solar Park
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Solar Power Portal.
When I saw the title, I felt I just had to call it out.
A 1GW Solar Park
Normally, a 50-100 MW solar farm is considered large for the UK, so a 1 GW solar farm must be truly enormous, by any standards.
According to the heading of the Great North Road Solar and Biodiversity Park web site, which says this.
Elements Green is developing proposals for a new solar and energy storage park located to the northwest of Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire.
With a potential generation capacity of around 800 megawatts (MW) AC of solar energy, the scheme has the potential to provide enough clean, affordable energy to meet the power needs of approximately 400,000 homes while avoiding more than 250,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions every year.
The size appears to be around 800 MW.
But that is still large!
The Project Area
This article on the BBC is entitled Survey Suggests Opposition To Major Solar Farm, has this as a caption to the first picture.
The solar project is made up of around 1.5 million panels covering 7,000 acres.
That is around eleven square miles or a 3.3 mile square.
A Map Of The Project
This map of the project was clipped from the Elements Green web site.
Note.
- The blue areas are solar panels.
- The red line at the right hand side is the A1 Great North Road.
- There is a lot of space for more solar panels.
It could be even bigger than 1 GW.
There Is Opposition To The Wind Farm
This article on the BBC is entitled Survey Suggests Opposition To Major Solar Farm.
This is the sub-heading,
A consultation about a major solar farm in Nottinghamshire has shown the scale of the opposition it faces to being built.
These two paragraphs detail the scale of the opposition.
The consultation, held in January and February, found 54% of respondents opposed the scheme, with 16% supporting the current plan.
Among the main reasons people gave for opposing the scheme were its visual and ecological impact.
The reasons for opposition are typical.
These two paragraphs describe the actions of the developer.
Having received the backing in principle of several key nature charities and trusts, the Great North Road Solar Park project will be renamed ‘Great North Road Solar and Biodiversity Park’, with a new logo to reflect this.
Communities who were consulted on the original proposals in early 2024 expressed a strong desire to protect and enhance their natural environment. Acting upon this feedback, developer Elements Green has formed partnerships with the RSPB, Sherwood Forest Trust, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, and The Trent Rivers Trust, to ensure that nature benefits from their ambitious project.
I suspect that some of the opposition groups have labelled the last paragraph as green-washing.
Nine Thousand Sheep!
Usually, when large numbers of sheep are mentioned on the Internet, it’s usually something a bit coarse.
But in this project, it’s only letting sheep, do what they do well ; act as green lawnmowers, have lambs and provide meat and wool to increase the bottom line.
Where Is The Connection To The Grid?
The FAQs section of the Great North Road Solar and Biodiversity Park web site has this question.
Why has Elements Green chosen this location for the solar park?
This answer is given.
A key factor influencing the location of GNR Solar and Biodiversity Park is the availability of a connection at National Grid’s Staythorpe substation. The closure of fossil fuel power stations has created capacity on the grid. This would enable GNR Solar and Biodiversity Park to continue the tradition of power generation in the area using a clean, renewable resource.
In addition, a range of planning and environmental factors such as the existing land use, quality of land, as well as designations and planning and technical constraints have also informed our choice of location for the scheme.
So if you’re near the site of a disused coal- or gas-fired power station, don’t expect it to be developed as agricultural land, woodland or housing.
The Wikipedia entry for Staythorpe power station, reveals there is a 1,850 MW gas-fired power station on the site.
The Great North Road Solar and Biodiversity Park would appear to have a very able gas-fired back-up,
No Battery Or Energy Storage Is Mentioned
In an idealised day, there is a period of light and a period of darkness.
A battery would allow any excess electricity generated in the day to be used at night.
Google searches reveal energy storage could be fitted.
One of Highview Power’s environmentally-friendly 200 MW/3.25 GWh liquid-air batteries could be a starting point for a one GW solar or wind farm.
Could A Wind Farm Be Added To The Solar Farm?
In An Excursion To Retford And Worksop, I noticed a large hybrid solar and wind farm alongside the railway.
As the Great North Road Solar and Biodiversity Park uses a lot of land, would some be available for a sprinkling of wind turbines?
Conclusion
Looking at the map, you can understand some peoples’s enthusiasm for large solar farms and large onshore wind farms, as they can be so easily connected to the infrastructure of a decommissioned coal- or gas-fired power station.
Vattenfall Invests In 76-Megawatt Agrivoltaic Project
The title of this post, is the same as that of this media report from Vattenfall.
This is the sub-heading.
Agrivoltaics is the combination of sustainable agriculture and solar power generation on the same agricultural land. Vattenfall has now made a final investment decision for a 76-megawatt solar park Tützpatz in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The project is being set up without state support.
These two paragraphs outline the project.
Photovoltaics is now one of the cheapest technologies among renewable energies, and solar power has a high level of acceptance among the population. However, critics of open space photovoltaics fear that expansion could take place at the expense of agricultural land used for food production. The relatively young technology of agrivoltaics, which can reconcile agricultural use and photovoltaics, can help to resolve this competitive situation.
For the first time, Vattenfall will implement this innovative concept of land use on a commercial scale with partners. The aim of the project in Tützpatz is to combine module types on different mounting systems with suitable agricultural uses over an area of 95 ha, and thus gain further practical experience for future commercial projects of this kind. According to current plans, construction at Tützpatz is scheduled to start in early summer 2023.
Note.
- Tützpatz is a few miles North of Lincoln.
- This project is subsidy-free.
- At Tützpatz, 76 MW is to be installed in 95 hectares, which is an energy density of 0.8 MW per hectare.
- Agrivoltaics have an extensive Wikipedia entry.
I would expect we could use agrivoltaics in quite a few places in Southern England.
French Farmers Are Covering Crops With Solar Panels To Produce Food And Energy At The Same Time
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on euronews.green.
These paragraphs explain the technique.
Agrivoltaics – the practice of using land for both solar energy and agriculture – is on the rise across France.
In the Haute-Saône region, in the northeastern part of the country, an experiment is being conducted by solar-energy company TSE. It is hoping to find out whether solar energy can be generated without hindering large-scale cereal crops.
Previous attempts to experiment with agrivoltaics have been through smaller-scale projects. But, keen to see if it can thrive on an industrial level, 5,500 solar panels are being spread over this farm in the commune town of Amance by TSE.
The article also contains a picture, which shows panels high in the air and a tractor going underneath.
I’m not sure of the idea’s practical application, although, I do know of a farmer, who is experimenting with using solar panels in a field with sheep. He also has found that on another field fully fitted with solar panels, hares were thriving.
In Understanding Floatovoltaics, I talked about another French idea; floating solar panels, where solar panels are floated on calm water like a reservoir.
Talking of reservoirs, I remember seeing a Tomorrow’s World, as a child, where it was proposed that concrete reservoirs, like those under the Heathrow flightpath, be filled with foamed concrete and covered with soil, so they could be used to grow crops.
- The water capacity would be slightly smaller.
- There would be less water losses.
I wonder what happened to that idea.
The Anonymous Widower 