Solar panels get €1,000/acre so what’s the catch?

Water John

Bigger projects would be connecting into 110kv, which is the national grid. Medium into 38kv, 20kv and 10kv which is the localised distribution network.

gym_imposter

It's peculiar to me that the solar companies don't try and offer to buy the land off the farmers instead of paying well in excess of a grand per acre for decades ?

50HX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863461#Comment_121863461

It's a massive capital investment to purchase land

It will also tell you that should solar go south in the morning they can up sticks & walk away

gym_imposter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863486#Comment_121863486

True,I'm not suggesting that the purchase price should be €1000 X 35 per acre but if they offered €20 K per acre, they'd save significant on a full thirty five year term lease

Never going to be anything more than a minority but surprised it never happens all the same

Victor

For them, if they bought the land, it would mean almost all their expenditure would be upfront. All that would be left would be security, maintenance and admin.

Dickie10

why are they pushing to get land under solar and why is it so hard to get roof space covered and get 1,000 euro for an acre of that?

gym_imposter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863565#Comment_121863565

Yeah , it's just not the done thing

Victor

"why are they pushing to get land under solar" - the power companies are doing it to make money.

"why is it so hard to get roof space covered and get 1,000 euro for an acre of that?" - there aren't many 100-acre roofs. Economies of scale are important.

pureza

1500 an acre widely offered now in Wicklow and Wexford by one of the large JV operations

That's the equivalent of a minimum of €900 an acre after tax or €45k into your hand p.a index linked for 30 to 35 years

It's a serious offering

Kerry2021

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121873555#Comment_121873555

€1,500/acre is great money to be fair. If 6 neighbours had 60-80 acres each of poor land and if they’re only running beef cattle on it making no money then I think it’s something that they’d be right to take up. Those people would most likely already have off farm jobs that take up most of their time. I don’t think many if any dairy farmers could bear to see their land covered in solar panels and see the cows go etc

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121864417#Comment_121864417

You actually get a lot more per acre of roof space, the difference is the costs are upfront

Back on page 1 of the thread I worked out that €1k/acre is something like 0.2c/kWh generated

Considering the FIT is hovering around 18-20c/kWh, that's a pretty poor slice of the investment pie

Now I guess to answer the question of why you couldn't just rent out your roof at a fixed rate, as others have said scale is important. The installation costs on 100 houses would likely be greater than an acre of land, and you can't just connect the whole lot into the grid, it's 100 NC6 connections

There have been companies in the US that did this, but you had to sign up to their electricity rates which often weren't great

Rooftop solar is generally better for self consumption, and in that regard it's excellent. Speaking from experience, my bills are down from €211 per month to €24, and that's including all of my heating and driving

But the flip side is you have to pay upfront for all the savings so there is a payback period. People go a bit mad about the payback period, and while it is important, it shouldn't discourage people

After all homeowners don't question the expense of an extension or a new kitchen despite the fact that they never pay for themselves

One thing that really bothers me is the measly 3-4 panels you see on new houses just to comply with the building regs. They really should be covering any roof space that isn't north facing in panels nowadays. It would make a big difference to the power consumption and energy bills of the new homeowners