BayWa r.e. has successfully connected seven solar farms to the grid in the UK. These plants achieve a total output of 76 MWp and are situated in locations across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
BayWa r.e. has set up all of these turnkey plants within the last five months. The commissioning in March 2017 ensured accreditation of these projects for ROC 1.2 promotional programmes in England and Wales as well as for ROC 1.4 in Northern Ireland. BayWa r.e.'s own system design is VDE-certified and fulfils maximum requirements as to installation and maintenance efficiency and ensures a permanently high production performance of the plants. BayWa r.e. has financed all of the projects and will likely sell the solar farms in the course of the year.
With approximately 46 MWp, "Bann Road" is the biggest solar farm realised so far in Northern Ireland. For this project, a power purchase agreement (PPA) spanning 15 years has already been concluded with SSE Airtricity, Northern Ireland’s second largest energy utility and largest provider of renewable energy. Centrica is the purchaser of the renewable energy certificates.
Matthias Taft, Board Member of BayWa AG, responsible for the energy business, is happy about this success story: "After realising 130 MWp last year, we have continued our success this year despite the declining feed-in tariff. We’ve been able to implement a total plant output of more than 460 MW to date in the solar, wind and bioenergy sectors across the UK. Moving forward, we are increasingly focusing on the O&M sector where we already service plants with an output of over 620 MW in the UK. The recent acquisition of Green Hedge Operation Services further strengthens our service offering and puts us in prime position as the UK market consolidates and investors search for experienced O&M providers who can optimise their assets.”
Moreover, BayWa r.e. is active in the trade of PV components in Great Britain. In the solar project business, BayWa r.e. is currently planning to realise projects, among others, in the USA, in Spain as well as in Southeast Asia, Japan and Australia.
