With the roll out of solar panels expected to increase fivefold since the introduction of the Government’s new feed in tariff, renewable energy developers are now looking to the sun aswell as the wind to generate electricity.
Wind farm company Ecotricity told The Times this week that it is set to propose a number of solar farms in the south and east of the UK. Ecotricity Chief Dale Vince said that although solar power generation in the UK is not very efficient, solar farms are now economic in the UK due to the new feed in tariff subsidies. Vince estimated that solar farms in the UK would generate around one third of the electricity generated by similar farms in Spain.
Ecotricity plans to develop solar farms of around 5 megawatts in size. This would take up agricultural land of 25 acres and cost circa £15million. The cost is more than 4 times the cost of onshore wind turbines.
It will be interesting to see if anti- solar groups start cropping up if more developers turn to the technology. The Council for the Protection of Rural England has already stated that they would prefer to see solar panels on buildings and in urban areas.
