Solar Parks in Ireland. The wrong model?

quentingargan

According to this article, at least one company has an expectation of a feed in tariff next year and is planning to build 30 solar parks, each about 25 acres.

Across the UK, some believe the construction of massive solar parks has become a blight on the landscape (e.g. here and here . Worse, the grid capacity for solar has been taken up in some areas to the extent that householders and small businesses are no longer permitted to connect even relatively modest solar PV systems.

It would seem to me that solar PV should first be fitted on roofs of houses and commercial buildings, where the power can be used locally, and the surplus exported to the grid. Only when every rooftop is producing power should we look to using valuable agricultural land.

But worse, this centralisation of production has no benefit except to investors. The scheme proposed is funded by Sydney based investors. It would seem absurd to me that this sort of project is being proposed before we give microgeneration a decent run at building out solar power on houses, warehouses and farm buildings.

Any views out there?

hexosan

Seems a no brainer to stick it on roofs first so this been the lovely island of (fcukwit policy makers) Ireland you can pretty much guarantee that won't be happening here.

JonathonS

Whatever about wind turbines any of the solar parks I have seen in Germany are absolute blights on the landscape, so for that reason alone I would not support them.

Economically whether PV panels on every rooftop is preferable to a limited number of large parks is debatable. Panels on roofs can be visually intrusive too. Are they subject to PP? If not they should be, although like satellite dishes any regulation would probably be ignored and not enforced.

What is the position of ESB Networks on parks vs roofs? My understanding is that for the network to be reconfigured to accept feed-in supply from large numbers of small producers would require a huge (uneconomic?) level of investment.

The future of PV and other small-scale generation lies in 100% in-house usage, so I am waiting for accumulator technology to catch up.

quentingargan

JonathonS wrote: »

Whatever about wind turbines any of the solar parks I have seen in Germany are absolute blights on the landscape, so for that reason alone I would not support them.

Economically whether PV panels on every rooftop is preferable to a limited number of large parks is debatable. Panels on roofs can be visually intrusive too. Are they subject to PP? If not they should be, although like satellite dishes any regulation would probably be ignored and not enforced.

What is the position of ESB Networks on parks vs roofs? My understanding is that for the network to be reconfigured to accept feed-in supply from large numbers of small producers would require a huge (uneconomic?) level of investment.

The future of PV and other small-scale generation lies in 100% in-house usage, so I am waiting for accumulator technology to catch up.

Planning is required for anything over 7 panels on a domestic roof, or 30 panels on an industrial one. It would be foolish to install a large industrial system without getting planning first.

You're on the money asking about ESB approach. It is one thing for the grid pool to have to buy electricity from a solar park, but another thing altogether to lose sale of retail price power to an industrial user producing their own, and exporting a small surplus. But we have to find solutions to that.

Producing your own power and exporting a surplus doesn't really require grid reinforcement unless your exports are larger than the local transformer capacity, which is unlikely in most situations.

gman2k

quentingargan wrote: »

Planning is required for anything over 7 panels on a domestic roof

Not that I'm doubting you Q, but do you have a source for the 7 panel limit?
I was hoping to install two banks of four panels...:mad:

quentingargan

gman2k wrote: »

Not that I'm doubting you Q, but do you have a source for the 7 panel limit?
I was hoping to install two banks of four panels...:mad:

Afraid so. SI 83/2007. See attached. Most panels are about 1.6 SqM and the limit of the exemption is 12 sqM.

Capt'n Midnight

hexosan wrote: »

Seems a no brainer to stick it on roofs first so this been the lovely island of (fcukwit policy makers) Ireland you can pretty much guarantee that won't be happening here.

New build should include solar. The extra cost is tiny compared to average house prices. Stuff like roof tiles with panels built in, it's not rocket science.

Retrofitting is a different story. Working at heights is dangerous. Also it's less efficient than integrating into new build as you have to add in the supports and wiring.

Calahonda52

http://www.esb.ie/main/press/pressreleaseWS.jsp?id=5354
KINGSPAN ESB JV Unlocks £320M Savings Potential of Solar PV for Northern Ireland Businesses

this will come here as well.

Don't worry about the pv farms, they will be robbed

quentingargan

Calahonda52 wrote: »

http://www.esb.ie/main/press/pressreleaseWS.jsp?id=5354
KINGSPAN ESB JV Unlocks £320M Savings Potential of Solar PV for Northern Ireland Businesses

I found that interesting. ESB doesn't seem so keen on solar down here, but is happy to co-operate in other jurisdictions where there are financial supports to harvest :pac: