Whilst it doesn't say as much on their web site just yet, Cornwall County Council have effectively approved the application from German developers Kronos Solar to construct the 25 MW Canworthy Solar Farm on 50 hectares of land at Maxworthy near Launceston. Cornwall planning committee have approved the scheme, but delegated responsibility for dotting all the Is and crossing all the Ts on the conditions associated with the application to their planning officers. This will make it the larget solar PV park in Cornwall, and in the UK for that matter.
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Filed under Renewables by Jim Hunt
After a brief respite overnight the heavens have opened once again here in the Haldon Hills. According to the econnexus weather widget the number of red flood warnings here in South West England has jumped to 45, up from 11 earlier today. The amber flood alerts have increased from 50 to 57. Unfortunately for the first time during this extended period of heavy rainfall it seems things are even worse for people living near the south coast of Cornwall. According to the Environment Agency there are now two severe flood warnings in force:
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Chinese solar photovoltaic module manufacturer China Sunergy announced last week that it had:
Completed the transactions to procure its first two solar park projects in the United Kingdom (UK). The two solar parks with a size of about 5 MW each are located in the southwest of Cornwall region. China Sunergy will arrange the construction of the projects, and then own and operate these two solar parks itself.
China Sunergy were rather coy about which two solar farms they had purchased, but according to the BBC the sites involved are Higher Tregarne near Falmouth and Causilgey Farm near Truro. German solar PV developer AEE Renewables originally obtained planning permission from Cornwall County Council to build the two 5 MW sites.
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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.
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According to the front page news in this morning's Western Morning News, and under the headline "Eden in new 'hot rocks' scheme":
Energy independence, hi-tech jobs and a long-term income from exporting power to other parts of the country could be a reality for Cornwall by the end of the decade.
It's not a reality just yet, however, since although the Eden Project obtained planning permission for a geothermal energy facility from Cornwall County Council back in 2010:
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Doing my due diligence on the proposed 224 acre solar farm south of Week St Mary I was puzzled by the fact that the application mentions that:
The site is in close proximity to another large scale ground-mounted solar photovoltaic farm which will occupy land immediately to the south of Good Energy’s proposed site. This second scheme, proposed for development by Sun2Energy UK Ltd at Lower Wheatley Farm, is also a 25MW(p) scheme and therefore the potential for cumulative impacts is significant. Cumulative effects will be considered in detail by the specialist involved in assessing each of the above sub-headings.
After a bit more digging around on the Cornwall County Council planning search engine I discovered that there is indeed another proposed solar farm, which has been in the planning pipeline for rather longer than the one mentioned by the Western Morning News today. Despite a very different address and postcode the two solar parks are in fact of similar size, and right next door to each other. The developers of this one are Sun2Energy UK Limited, and in their request for a scoping opinion they refer to the site as "Canworthy Solar Farm". This one has now also been entered into our South West Solar hall of fame.
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The solar park proposals here in South West England get ever more extravagant. The Western Morning News reports today that:
Worried homeowners have vowed to fight proposals for the country's biggest solar farm which would cover 224 acres of Cornish farmland.
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