Solar farm - no idea where to start.

Fr Tod Umptious · 06-02-2024 11:28am #1

While on a train journey up the country I saw a few fields turned into a solar farm.

I have a bit of land and home doing very little and was wondering if it would be suitable for a solar farm.

But I have absolutely no idea where to start looking for information about it.

Are there consultants out there that deal with traditional farmers wishing to use land for solar.

And if so where could I find them?

What are they even called?

MrMusician18 · 06-02-2024 11:31am

How far are you from a substation?

the_amazing_raisin · 06-02-2024 11:55am

I believe there's companies that are actively looking for land to rent for solar farms

There were folks asking whether it was worth it in the farming and forestry forums last year

Another trick is to look at planning applications for the keyword solar and you should find a new company names

The offer seems to be a fairly straightforward land lease, they give you a fixed rate and handle the installation and connection costs

In terms of return per kWh, I seem to remember it was pretty poor compared to the price of electricity. However the advantage for the landowner is they don't deal with any of the hassle

I suppose it's worth defining your goals as a starting point. If your goal is "land make money" then leasing to a solar company is probably best

If you want to directly power your house from green energy or move towards that magic grid independence then you'll be better off looking at some ground mounted arrays for yourself. In that case you'll be looking at the more domestic focused solar installers

Depending on the size of the land and what it's being used for it's also quite possible to do both, which may be best, gives you the bonus of lower bills and a steady income

Fr Tod Umptious · 06-02-2024 12:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728194#Comment_121728194

From what I can figure 7km as the crow flies.

Fr Tod Umptious · 06-02-2024 12:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728275#Comment_121728275

Thanks

I'd be looking at the "land make money" option.

I'll look into those planning applications, good place to start.

MrMusician18 · 06-02-2024 12:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728312#Comment_121728312

I think you are just too far for a solar company to be interested. If the substation is suitable then they will just approach a closer landowner.

That's not to say you might not be suitable as a smaller scale generator, there are plenty of grid connected micro generators out there. If say you are in the scale of say a 50kW system (a very large domestic array or farm sized array) then looking into how dairy farms approach their solar installation is worth a look.

slave1 · 06-02-2024 12:45pm

This was covered a few months ago in a full thread, cant find it but this is ground already covered if anyone can remember that last thread title

Fr Tod Umptious · 06-02-2024 1:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728518#Comment_121728518

Thanks I'll look for that.

con747 · 06-02-2024 6:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728603#Comment_121728603

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058294339/solar-panels-get-1-000-acre-so-what-s-the-catch https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057645610/solar-farm

the_amazing_raisin · 06-02-2024 6:13pm

If you're too far from a transformer to be of interest to a solar company then it's probably better to be looking at putting a couple of ground mounted arrays down and going for reducing your bills and microgeneration

You could go for a larger system and get the NC7 installation which allows you to go above the 6kVA limit of microgeneration, however this would be an added upfront cost

slave1 · 06-02-2024 10:33pm

Chances are even with a NC7 there would be a limit on export back to NC6 level, that seems to be the vibe

Jonathan · 06-02-2024 10:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121731821#Comment_121731821

What are you basing this on?

slave1 · 07-02-2024 12:52am

An internal ESB employee comment and the guy who installed my SM, both said not to bother as likelihood would be export limiting (this was in conjunction with MIC upgrade)

jkforde · 09-02-2024 6:56pm

distance is one hurdle, capacity at the substation is the next..

https://www.esbnetworks.ie/new-connections/generator-connections-group/availability-capacity-map

fair dues for considering it, just shows how things are changing fast.. follow it as far as you can while keeping your sanity!

the_amazing_raisin · 09-02-2024 7:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121732454#Comment_121732454

There's a thread here from around 6 months ago where someone got an NC7 and I believe they were allowed over the 6kVA threshold

They were required to install export limiting but I think that's because ESBN will only accept certain export limiting systems and his wasn't on the list

Can't find the thread unfortunately and boards search apparently doesn't search thread titles

Edit: Found the thread, and you're right @slave1 they were limited to 6kW

I still think there's merit with going that route if you have the space, you'll be able to maintain a fairly steady export all year round and reduce bills to almost nothing

Plus there's plenty of creative ways to use some extra power like crypto miners

slave1 · 12-02-2024 3:44pm

Folk with greater than 6kW capacity installs typically have large battery setups to cover night time usage, they also have a water diverter to soak generation and an EV. Those folk will be in that excess of greater than 6kW within the next month and be export limiting