According to a Royal Bank of Scotland press release last week:

London-based InfraRed Capital Partners Limited, one of the UK’s leading environmental infrastructure investors, has acquired three ground-mounted solar parks in Cornwall with debt financing from a consortium of banks – Royal Bank of Scotland Corporate & Institutional Banking, HSBC Bank Plc and Santander Global Banking and Markets.

The three parks in Cornwall offer up to 15MW in power and will provide enough energy to meet the demand of 5,000 homes. The plants were originally developed by SGBM’s Asset & Capital Structuring team in partnership with Low Carbon Solar, a local developer.

The press release goes on to explain that:

All three of the solar parks were accredited prior to 1 August 2011 and are unaffected by the on-going announcements and changes to the UK Feed in Tariff (FIT) regime. Looking ahead, while it is forecast there will be no large-scale solar projects such as these completed under the FIT regime going forward (as the applicable new FIT tariffs do not encourage the required level of investment), the allocation of two Renewable Obligation Certificates to solar energy projects under the government's larger scale renewable investment scheme, the Renewable Obligation, coupled with falling technology costs, provides sufficient incentive for investment into UK solar, at least for the immediate future.

According to Andrew Buglass, who is head of Energy, Structured Finance at the Royal Bank of Scotland:

We have a pipeline of project finance deals in the UK solar space that we are working on, both re-financings and acquisitions of pre-August 2011 FIT-based solar assets and larger scale opportunities under the renewables obligation.

I have made a few phone calls, but I'm afraid I've yet to establish which three solar farms are involved in this deal.

Wessex Solar Energy have applied to Torridge District Council for planning permission to construct what they call the "Beaford Brook Solar Park". The proposed solar farm will occupy 16.4 Ha of land at Upcott Barton near Beaford. According to the design and access statement it is designed to produce 5 MW of electrical power using:

Of the order of 75,000 individual solar panels if thin film panels are preferred or 25,000 if crystalline panels are selected. There will also be up to 10 inverters and a single transformer that will be housed in dedicated buildings.

It should be noted however that the final selection of the exact type and size of PV panels and the number of inverters will be subject to confirmation through a competitive tendering process. The competitive tendering process will be undertaken to determine the supplier / manufacturer of the PV panels and associated equipment, following receipt of planning permission. There are a number of suppliers / manufacturers of PV panels of the required power output, all with similar characteristics.

Beaford Brook is thus the latest project to be added to our interactive map and list of large scale solar PV projects in South West England.

This particular storm has been brewing down here in South West England for quite some time now, but over the last week the debate about the proposed "Atlantic Array" of offshore wind turbines has heated up considerably.  Developer RWE npower renewables are currently engaging in the latest round of public consultations about the wind farm project, which in its current form proposes the construction of  between 188 and 278 wind turbines, each with a maximum output of between 3.6MW and 5 MW, and thus providing a maximum total capacity of 1.39 GW. As RWE themselves point out the proposed location of the wind farm is:

Around 14 kilometres (km) from closest point to shore on the North Devon coast, 22.5km from closest point to shore the South Wales coast, and 13km from Lundy Island.

That latter figure in particular is one focus for a range of objectors to the proposals. By way of example The National Trust had this to say on their blog last week:

We’ve submitted our response to the consultation this summer on the environmental impacts of Atlantic Array, and will be objecting to the proposals when they come forward to the Planning Inspectorate for decision later in the year.

In their "quotable key messages" The National Trust state (amongst other things) that:

We believe that offshore wind should make an important contribution to the country’s renewable energy targets. We have not objected to a number offshore wind development proposals within sight of the coastline protected by the Trust – for example at Liverpool Bay visible from Formby and at Great Gabbard visible from Orfordness, Suffolk. But we cannot support proposals that would seriously damage the beauty of our coastline.

The locations chosen for Round 3 offshore wind developments have not taken sufficient account of environmental factors and in particular the sensitivity and designations of nearby coast. We would be pleased to work with the relevant authorities to identify areas where offshore windfarms could be located without having serious adverse impacts on sensitive coastlines.

Some of the proposed windfarms under Round 3 are much closer inshore than anticipated in the Government’s Environmental Assessment, and are largely within – rather than outside – the 12 nautical mile limit anticipated for sensitive coasts.

The proposals recently announced for the Atlantic Array in the Bristol Channel are very alarming. The huge array of turbines, each up to 50% taller than the highest point of Lundy, and only 8 – 10 miles from land, will fundamentally change the views from both the North Devon and Gower coastlines. They will dominate the seascape around Lundy and will introduce an industrial scale development to this beautiful, wild coastline.

The National Trust's argument is also being echoed by others. For example on their own web site the Landmark Trust, who run much of Lundy on a day to day basis, put it like this:

Following the latest round of public presentations by RWE Npower, we are continuing to urge people to object to plans to build an enormous windfarm in the Bristol Channel which would dwarf the tiny island and destroy it as a place of refuge for wildlife and visitors. Consultation on the proposed Atlantic Array, the huge windfarm planned just 8 miles off the coast of Lundy, ends on 31st August.

whereas the North Devon Coast Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership say (amongst other things) in their own position statement that:

The AONB Partnership is concerned that the development of the Atlantic Array, by virtue of its size and proximity to the coast, will have a serious detrimental impact on the natural beauty of the North Devon Coast Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and thus will be counter to the primary purpose of designation.

We are concerned that insufficient weight has been given to the potential impact on the protected landscapes that bound the Channel and, in particular, to the impact on ND AONB. Unlike the other sites identified in Round 3 of the offshore windfarm leasing process, the Bristol Channel Zone is almost entirely within the UK 12nm (22km, 13.5miles) limit.

Amongst others voicing a similar message in the blogosphere, local author (and surfing barrister!) Tim Kevan has recently started a group on FaceBook opposing the development, under the banner of "Atlantic Array – No Way!". On his blog Tim hints at his reasons for doing so:

Let me declare an interest: I love Lundy and even went there on my honeymoon only recently. Please don't let it be destroyed by short term commercial interests.

Having said all that, there is an apparently lone voice out there in the cyber-wilderness putting the other side of the argument. On yet another shiny new FaceBook page, under the banner of "Hooray For The Atlantic Array", the following YouTube video is recommended:

It's a trailer for the movie "The Age of Stupid", in which Oscar nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite says (amongst other things) that:

It's like looking through binoculars observing people on a far off beach running around in circles fixated on the small area of sand under their feet as a tsunami races towards the shore.

Described this time last year by the BBC as "England's western-most Roman town", what is now instead referred to as a "native village" is currently being excavated just outside Ipplepen in South Devon. According to Dr Ioana Oltean from the University of Exeter:

[The village] may have been in existence before the Roman period. However, it traded actively with the Romans, shown by the initial collection of coins found and the ornate pottery, usually found near large cities and military camps and not in villages where most people would have used basic wooden bowls. The uniqueness of this Romano-British settlement is shown in the level of coins and types of pottery found, indicating that an exchange in goods and money was happening in the area, on a much larger scale than known in other villages in Britain at this period of time.

Danielle Wootton, Devon Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, added that:

Previously there was little evidence of any Roman influence beyond the Roman city of Exeter. We are starting to see more evidence of Roman influence further into Devon and Cornwall, through new discoveries such as Calstock and now this large Romano-British settlement. What is interesting on the site is that, despite the presence of Roman pottery and coins, the inhabitants are still living in native roundhouses, as Britons had done for centuries before, so they are maintaining some traditional ways whilst adapting to the influence of the Roman empire.

This is all most interesting for an amateur antiquarian like yours truly, but does of course raise far more questions than it answers.  One of the foremost in my own mind at present is this one – What on Earth were Teignbridge District Council thinking of when they gave planning permission for this sort of structure:

A non Roman agricultural building near Ipplepen

to be built on top of this sort of archaeology?

At the end of last month the "Summer Olympics Special" edition of Time magazine carried a picture of Jessica Ennis on the cover. Just inside, however, was a double page photograph of "A bulldozed field in Geff, Illinois", together with the information that "A drought devastating stretches of the U.S. has forced many farmers to destroy their failed crops".  That was accompanied on the Time web site by a series of photographs and an article entitled "The Great Drying Strikes Again". Time pointed out that:

The drought of 2012 keeps getting worse. On July 26, the federal government reported that more than two-thirds of the continental U.S. is drier than normal, with 20% of the country in one of the two most extreme stages of drought, up from just 7% a week before. In key agricultural states like Illinois, the situation is dire: nearly three-quarters of that corn-producing region’s land is in exceptional or extreme drought.

Time added that:

The extended dry spell and the record-breaking temperatures that have gripped much of the U.S. this year have brought climate change back to the attention of the public. Some 70% of Americans now say they believe that the world is growing warmer, up from 58% two years ago. Richard Muller, a physicist at the University of California-Berkeley and a longtime climate change skeptic, took to the pages of the New York Times this week to announce that he is now convinced that global warming is real and that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for most of it.

In that article Mr. Mueller, professor of physics at the at the University of California, Berkeley, said that:

Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.

Going back to Time once more, they point out that:

It’s far from clear exactly what role climate change may be playing in the drought of 2012. Attributing a weather event to global warming in real time is impossible, and natural phenomena like the recent La Nina, which usually produces hotter and drier weather to the southern U.S., likely play a much more immediate role than broad-scale, climate patterns. But all that means is that there are at least two engines—short-term and long-term—driving the thermometer up.

The thermometer isn't the only thing going up, so is the price of a range of agricultural commodities, here in the the United Kingdom as well as over on the other side of the Atlantic. This weekend Farming Online reports on the U.S. drought that:

Over the past few days conditions have improved slightly from July’s dry weather and baking heat; light rains and cooler temperatures have helped to palliate all but the worst affected regions. However, rainfall has been too late and too scant to improve the condition of maize and soy crops, both of which had been continuously downgraded until this week, sparking market rallies and leading to spiralling grain prices, which the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned will hinder access to food and may start another food crisis.

Drought in Russia and India, where a weak monsoon has affected agricultural regions in the North and West, have also contributed to concern over the availability and affordability of a range of staple grains this year. Yesterday, in spite of increased production in the United States, USDA said further rises could be expected in wheat prices, which already reached all-time highs last week.

Earlier last week the United Kingdom's Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board reported on their HGCA web site that:

The Ensus plant at Wilton, Teesside has announced that it expects to open later this month. The plant has been closed since May 2011 but has been undertaking maintenance and engineering works in recent months to ready the system for operation.  At full capacity the plant can use 1Mt of wheat per year to produce around 400M litres of bioethanol and 350kt of DDGS animal feed. However, it is expected to take two months for the plant to ramp up to full operation. The closure of trade loopholes and poor US maize crop mean that competition from US ethanol is weakened and this is one reason for the improvement in market conditions for UK ethanol production.

What constitutes an "improvement in market conditions" for Ensus may not necessarily seem that way to the rest of us however.  What do you suppose happens if supplies of grain decrease, whilst a greater proportion of that supply is turned from food into fuel?  To help you answer that question, here's a chart of what wheat futures prices in London have been doing recently:

November 2012 wheat futures price chart, from farming.co.uk

Since our last report on varying opinions concerning the potential environmental impact of the proposed solar PV park at Cofford Farm near Starcross some additional correspondence about the matter has been received by Teignbridge District Council.

Natural England expanded on their original response, saying (amongst a number of other things) that:

This is a very large area to be covered with ‘glass’. Even though PV is designed to absorb sunlight there can be a degree of glint/glare which will change the habitats and character of the area completely. We view EIA as an opportunity to understand the environmental impacts of the proposal and consider ways of mitigating or reducing them. Without it the applicant will still have to undertake much of the same work prior to submission.

The Teignbridge District Council Conservation Officer has expanded on his original response, saying (amongst a number of other things) that:

From my observations to date though, I am doubtful that effective mitigation is possible for the setting of Mamhead House, given its commanding and elevated position noted against the wider falling land of the landscape running east towards Cofford Farm. I would hope that a solar park of this scale can be located elsewhere in a less sensitive landscape location.

After originally submitting a "a non-committal response" English Heritage later said they:

Have a concern that it has the potential to impact on a group of heritage assets at Mamhead, including Mamhead House and its associated registered landscape. In view of this, we need to issue a revised consultation response.

That revised response doesn't seem to have arrived at the Teignbridge DC planning department before they issued their decision about the matter, which reads as follows:

I have concluded that the proposal does not constitute EIA development for the following reasons:

• The site does not lie in [a] sensitive are[a] for the purposes of the regulations; and,
• Although it exceeds the thresholds laid down in Column 2 of Schedule 2 it is not likely to have significant effects on the environment.

I guess it all depends on how you decide to define the word "significant", and that Pegasus Environmental had read the right dictionary when they suggested in their original request for a screening opinion that "there is unlikely to be significant affects upon these [designated] areas"?

If you'd like to read the associated paperwork in full there's a link to it all over on our list of large scale solar photovoltaic projects.

Whilst there seems to be much less paperwork showing on the South Hams District Council web site than for similar applications in Teignbridge, the ultimate outcome down there appears to be much the same.  In a delegated decision it has been determined that no environmental impact assessment is required for the proposed 30 acre solar PV park at Hazard Farm near Harberton.

The request for a screening opinion by TGC Renewables, together with South Hams response to a similar request for a slightly smaller project on the same site back in January 2011, can be viewed by following the link on our list of large scale solar photovoltaic projects.

That prior opinion does say that:

Given the large site area and the potential impact on landscape character and visual amenity, the Local Planning Authority considers that any planning application will need to be accompanied by a fully detailed landscape and visual assessment to allow proper consideration of these key issues.

Presumably TGC are working on that LVIA as I type!

I've finally managed to check out my theory that the proposed solar PV park at Cofford Farm near Starcross:

Looks as though [it] may well be visible from one of our favourite walks past the Mamhead Obelisk

My theory was indeed correct, and here are a few pictures to prove the point. As I was taking a few snaps of the view from the Mamhead Obelisk at the weekend, several groups of people wandered past. The family pictured were amongst them. The gentleman said that:

This is probably the best view in Devon

I pointed out that some changes to the view were being proposed. He said that he was from Kenton, visible on the left of the wide angle shot, and it was the first he'd heard of that news.

After a lot of prevarication the Department of Energy and Climate Change web site now proudly proclaims that:

Consultation on the Renewables Obligation Banding Review is now closed.

In a press release yesterday the Secretary of State, Ed Davey, said that:

Renewable energy will create a multi-billion pound boom for the British economy, driving growth and supporting jobs across the country. The support we’re setting out today will unlock investment decisions, help ensure that rapid growth in renewable energy continues and shows the key role of renewables for our energy security.

That might possibly be the case in some instances, but not everyone in the British renewables industry is entirely happy with the ultimate outcome. The complete table of the current ROC bandings and the new 2013-17 bandings is available from the links above, but let's pick out a few "highlights". Post consultation onshore wind reduces from 1.0 to 0.9 ROCs per MWh, whilst no doubt as a side effect of DECC's negotiations with the Treasury on such matters a few paragraphs are devoted to gas, including:

The Government will set out its gas strategy in the Autumn, and is today confirming that it sees gas continuing to play an important part in the energy mix well into and beyond 2030, while meeting our carbon budgets. The Government is also today announcing the introduction of a £500m field allowance for large shallow water gas fields, to secure investment in marginal gas fields in the UK Continental Shelf.

Moving on to solar photovoltaic:

There will be no immediate reduction in support for large-scale solar, but there will be a further consultation this year on reduced support levels given recent dramatic falls in costs.

There's not a whole lot of clarity in that if you happen to be a large-scale solar PV developer! I had a long conversation earlier today with Ben Cosh, Managing Director of TGC Renewables. More on that at a later date, but since TGC develop both wind and solar PV parks I did ask Ben his views on this latest news. He told me that whilst he has:

Enormous respect for the team at DECC

DECC are:

Currently operating in extremely difficult circumstances

and that as far as TGC were concerned they would:

Keep working at the day job until [DECC] have finally finished mucking around [with ROCs]

Moving on to what is currently a hot topic down here in South West England, the nascent UK deep geothermal industry received an awful lot less than it was hoping for. In his recent technical review of deep geothermal energy potential in Great Britain and Northern Ireland Tim Jackson, Senior Geothermal Engineer at international consultancy Sinclair Knight Merz, concluded that:

At current levels of support only direct heat applications are approaching financial viability. With higher levels of support, similar to those in Germany, HSA direct heat and EGS electricity generation projects will become attractive.

Support measures should be focused on two primary objectives: firstly reducing the risks involved to get to the first successful production well and secondly allowing projects that have proven the resource to develop commercial power and heat projects.

In his preface to the SKM report Dr. Ryan Law, Managing Director of Geothermal Engineering Ltd. and chair of the Renewable Energy Association's Deep Geothermal Group, pointed out that:

To develop the UK sector the report recommends the development of geothermal power projects by providing initial support levels at least equal to German levels (i.e. 5 ROCs)

The "now closed consultation" has in fact delivered 2 ROCs for deep geothermal, reducing to 1.9 in 2015/16 and 1.8 in 2016/17. In his most recent comments on this topic Dr. Law said that:

We are shocked by this announcement. We should be at the forefront of this industry, given the strength of British engineering skills. If the UK wants to seize a share of the booming global market for geothermal development we must prove our competence at home. The message today's announcement sends to the outside world is that the UK is closed for geothermal business.

We are now watching from the side-lines while other countries forge ahead in a global market estimated to be worth $40bn by 2020.

Sir Tim Smit, Chief Executive and Co-founder of the Eden Project, added that:

The recent SKM report stated 20% of UK electricity could be produced from deep geothermal. It is therefore very disappointing that ROCs have not been utilised sufficiently to encourage the required investment in this crucial industry. We are encouraged by the Government’s statement around supporting deep geothermal in other ways and we will be pressing strongly to establish the detail behind this.

For some reason the UK Government seems to have decided that shallow water gas wells are a better investment than deep geothermal wells "if gas proves cheap". As Chris Huhne put it not so very long ago, perhaps "climate change is the biggest market failure the world has ever seen"?

Last week's list of planning applications received by South Hams District Council contains the entry:

Request for screening opinion for Solar PV development (new site)

This seems to be an application by TGC Renewables for a large scale solar PV site near Harberton that they consulted local residents about at the same time as their Marley Thatch Farm site.

Consequently Hazard Farm, which is located between Totnes and South Brent, has been added to our interactive map and list of large scale solar PV projects in South West England.

I say "seems to be" because at the moment none of the associated documentation is available online, but South Hams tell me some should be downloadable from their web site at some point tomorrow.