Approached by a company developing solar farms

embraer170

I have been approached by a solar farm company offering an indexed €850/acre/year for 30 years.

Surely this is not serious?

whelan2

embraer170 wrote: »

I have been approached by a solar farm company offering an indexed €850/acre/year for 30 years.

Surely this is not serious?

I had them too, they never came back. I think they just suss out certain farms. They were to call back the next week and never did

patsy_mccabe

Are you located near a substation? That will be a big plus if you are. I know of one case in County Clare where planning permission has already being granted. You can continue to graze in under the solar units with sheep. You don't need sunshine to generate power either. Daylight is enough.
One catch is that you cannot claim Agricultural Relief on Capital Acquisition Tax, if passing on to the next generation. Have a feeling that will change though.

embraer170

To give some background, I have been in discussions with them for a while about running a cable through my land but am somewhat reluctant (bad experience with the ESB in the past). Now they are throwing in the idea of using the land as a solar farm but I can't believe they are serious.

Where is the profit in solar if they are paying that much to use an acre of land? The west of Ireland is not exactly the Sahara.

embraer170

Actually yes, I am right next to a substation.

alps

You need to talk to a solicitor, VERY experienced in these situations...
These are the achievable rents, however the the waters are shark infested...serious advise required BEFORE you sign anything....

Cattlepen

I had them to. Ask them ,seeing as they say that there is so much money in solar, why they don't make you a good offer to buy your farm and you will never see them again!! Vultures that will end up using your equity. They don't know how much they can give you because the tariff for solar energy has not been decided yet. It's the same tactic developers used by buying options on land during the boom.

patsy_mccabe

Definitely get Legal and Financial/Tax advice before agreeing to anything. That goes without saying,

Buckmickley

Up my area,they're offering €1000 an acre for the panels and €5000 for the sub station on 3 acres
So give them 103 acres and you get €115,000 pa INDEX linked for 25 year but realistically for ever
You won't touch it farming the land

Obviously you need to make sure that they are soundly funded
A lot of them are project flippers so don't agree to that
About 50% will go in tax as the €40k tfa for long term leases does not apply to solar(that may change)
But seriously who is making €500+ an acre farming land AFTER tax?

They are only approaching people with 38 or 110 kva lines through their land and you don't need to be near a sub station anymore because the esb are insisting one is built on every new project
If you think they don't make money,look at your esb day unit rate and then google how much electricity a 200 acre solar produces
They make a fortune
They prefer 200 acres either from one farm or a group of farms less than 1 km apart
For anyone considering,look at the parameters and research
You can do all that at no cost

patsy_mccabe

Heard only today of another solar farm to be put in county Clare.

mikeybrennan

If the deal was any good they wouldn't be coming to you.

Prob some grant propping it up cos Solar farms are not not viable here anyhow

WhichWay

No solar farms will be built without a government grant funded by the PSO levy. They might make a decision next year however I think there might be political headache coming from the existing REFIT grants in May 2018 when the electricity market gets changed inline with European requirements.

However if they do get a grant over € 100/MWh when the wholesale price is only €50 there could be a rush to get farmers signed up.


https://fora.ie/solar-development-subsidy-ireland-3060564-Nov2016/

Buckmickley

There are 200 solar farms currently in for planning permission nationwide though despite a delay on the grant
Make of that what you will,its 400,000 acres

jfh

Opening up an old tread so apologies, feel free to close mods.

Any here actually gone down this route and if so how's it working out, feel free to pm me if you prefer. Thanks