solar farms in Ireland

lalababa

I was just looking at a program about chernoble which said the chinese were buying land cheap there to put up 25km2 of solar.And I wondered how much energy it would generate per year.
On the back of an envelope I got 25Tkwh. (using 1200kwh/m2 from N. Germany down to 1000kwh/m2 for ukrane). I then started thinking about Ireland. As it happens ireland uses 25Tkwhs of electricity per year and averages 1000kwhs per m2 of solar so in my head we would need 25km2 of suitable land to generate 25Tkwhs. Leitrim ( and it's a fine county etc.) is 32000km2. so if we covered slightly less than 1/1000 of Leitrim or 6000acres or 2500Ha solar we would have the 25Tkwhs.
I then added up the 3 farms around me (poorish to marginal) of 250acres
( 1km2) total and calculated that under solar they would generate 1Tkwh p.a.
As consumers we pay what 15cent/kwh. 1Tkwh is 1000000000kwhs. At that rate the 3 farms would produce .15*1e+9= 150000000 euros or 150million euros gross p.a.. :eek: (you'd have to scale that down of course 'coz of gaps between the panels for access etc.) Let's say take 1/3 off for gaps etc. thats 100m at 15c/kwh gross.
At the moment they probally generate 50000 (including BPS) euro or less between the 3 of them. And of course one can still put sheep in:D

Just looked at wholesale prices of 6cent/kwh! The ISCA says a 5MW solar farm costing 6m to set up would at that wholesale rate make 175000euros net p.a. I,m assuming the 5MW is a 25 acre plot. So thats 1750000 euros or 1.7m net per year at 6cent/kwh for the 3 farms. But the proposed feed in tariff is between 8.5 and 15 cent-average 11.5cent. (The tariff being subidised 'coz of our renewables target.)
so thats over 3m net p.a. for the 3 farms. With a start up cost of the region (6m*10)*(.?scale up efficiency ) guess 30m. So generating 3m pa for 25yrs.

Or 250acres-gaps at 10c/kwh = 75m pa gross. -30m start up - running costs/maintenance? =45m-running costs in the 1st year ****e i'm getting confused.

pedigree 6

I'm nearly getting confused reading that.;)

How does Ireland compare to similar countries on the same latitude?
You'd imagine we would be handicapped by the rain and fog coming off the jetsream on the north Atlantic reducing the amount of UV hitting the ground.
Say Denmark and parts of north Germany would be on a similar latitude.
You'd imagine Ukraine would be better than the north of Germany being further south?
It must be an increase in snow in the winter.

On a different note you mentioned China.
There was a big sale there a short while ago of an Irish wind energy company to a Chinese corporation.

patsy_mccabe

There's planning permission being sought for a few solar farms in Ireland at the moment. One not too far from me.
Apparently they can set the panels up high enough, for sheep to graze in under them.

hytrogen

How many homes are in Ireland? Average a sq.m of about 80sq.m for a half a rooftop, the side facing south, excluding extensions or flat roofs over garages to be fair. Then divide that into your 25sq.km and see how much land we need for the remainder.. I'm genuinely interested in this and I reckon very little land, perhaps that over industrial flat-topped buildings would suffice. That would probably cover our average consumption per capita, then to really up the gear see how much surplus we can generate further and export that to the mainland Europe market and then we can start filling the coffers again

lalababa

Apologies, the 1000kwh/ m2/year might be the total energy falling on a m2!
A 100w panel seems to be around 0. 66m2 and puts out 85kwh/year. So a m2 panel would put around the 125kwh/year.
An average house roof say on one side have room for 15m2 so 1875kwh/year. I think this would be very small scale for efficiency.

Water John

We have the same level of irradiation as Germany.
There is a diff of about 15% from Cork to Donegal. The standard plot that seems to be used is the 5Mw max using somewhere like 25/30 acres.
Sheep or calves can be grazed under them. So those suggesting very poor or marginal land is nonsense. Basically a plateau is preferred.

There are a lot of applications into EiGrid at this point, over 400. Each of these have identified a site and a connection point to the grid. They have also made a deposit fee and application to EirGrid. There are about 10,000 acres subject to contract.
Not many have yet applied to planning permission.
There are over 80 X 5Mw application in county Cork alone. Six or seven of these have made a planning application.

Sadly, it seems to be stalled at Dept level. Don't expect anything from them next year either, despite the promises. Climate change concerns by our Govn't seem to be a joke.

hytrogen

lalababa wrote:

Apologies, the 1000kwh/ m2/year might be the total energy falling on a m2! A 100w panel seems to be around 0. 66m2 and puts out 85kwh/year. So a m2 panel would put around the 125kwh/year. An average house roof say on one side have room for 15m2 so 1875kwh/year. I think this would be very small scale for efficiency.

Yeah but we don't need to see the scales of Germany or Ukraine as we don't have the population demands they do of nearly 25times and 11times that of Ireland respectively so to push for such an intensity of 1000kwh/m2/year is very high grade demands. So if we were to produce that we would be exporting it with that level of excess.
Anyways before we go down that road we really have to overhaul the domestic markets perceptions of clean energy like solar and stop pelting it like it's still witchcraft and unattainable since we've such a "wet & dreary climate"

Panch18

Are you saying the land area of Leitrim is 32,000km squared because the land area of the whole of the republic is only circa 70,000 km squared

Waffletraktor

Water John wrote: »

We have the same level of irradiation as Germany.
There is a diff of about 15% from Cork to Donegal. The standard plot that seems to be used is the 5Mw max using somewhere like 25/30 acres.
Sheep or calves can be grazed under them. So those suggesting very poor or marginal land is nonsense. Basically a plateau is preferred.

There are a lot of applications into EiGrid at this point, over 400. Each of these have identified a site and a connection point to the grid. They have also made a deposit fee and application to EirGrid. There are about 10,000 acres subject to contract.
Not many have yet applied to planning permission.
There are over 80 X 5Mw application in county Cork alone. Six or seven of these have made a planning application.

Sadly, it seems to be stalled at Dept level. Don't expect anything from them next year either, despite the promises. Climate change concerns by our Govn't seem to be a joke.

Was there something about loosing agricultural exemption fir inheritance tax aswel with panels as its no longer used for agri uses?

Water John

Waffle, that is correct. Came out recently.
With the delays, looks like many landowners will have the opportunity to rethink their lease option as most are about for 3 years and the solar companies will have to renew them.

Boaty

Planning just gone in for a 57 acre solar farm beside the "Worst dump in the state" just off the m11 at the Beehive, excellent use of land as far as I'm concerned.
They are applying for 10 year permission so mustn't be too pushed about starting construction?

Water John

Most applications for infrastructure go for 10 years, used to be 5.

The solar companies option with the farmer is usually for 3 years. This is whilst its in planning. If they get planning and decide to build they move onto the Agreement which will be for at least 25 years.
That development looks like 8/9 Mw.

lalababa

I think you can discount most of the figures in the op. I'd had a few:o Leitrim has 1600km2.

Advbrd

Panch18 wrote: »

Are you saying the land area of Leitrim is 32,000km squared because the land area of the whole of the republic is only circa 70,000 km squared

Being pedantic, but is 70,000 km squared not 4,900,000,000 square kms?

Wanderer78

Renewable energy technologies should be heavily incentivised in Ireland, we have to get away from fossil fuel burning asap. It's always great to hear of people of dabbling in renewable tech but most can't afford it. Im not much of a fan of other nations setting up energy creation systems for their own needs, using our resources.