Member Article

UK's first RWE solar farm arrives in West Oxfordshire

Global downstream solar energy giant Conergy has connected a 37MWp solar power plant to the grid, for RWE Supply & Trading, the energy trading house of European utility RWE Group.

Located on a disused airfield at Kencot Hill, the new power plant is already producing enough electricity to supply 10,000 homes in the local area.

Conergy will continue to operate and maintain the plant after its ownership is transferred to Foresight Solar Fund Limited, a LSE-listed fund managed by Foresight Group.

The solar farm has planning permission for twenty-four years, after which the land must be returned to its original use.

In that time, it is expected to avoid the release of a quarter of a million tonnes of greenhouse gases.

Robert Goss, managing director at Conergy UK, said: “Large solar plants in the right places, like Kencot Hill, already allow thousands of people to run their washing machines and recharge their iPhones.

“They don’t think about where the electricity comes from, but when they’re asked what kind of power they want, most say solar.

“There are plenty of brownfield sites left in Britain, and a temporary invisible solar farm will always be more popular with the locals than a new housing estate or giant nuclear power station.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .