Solar Power
Your Energy Sussex and Tangmere Solar Farm
W
est Sussex County Council has a growing track record of delivering successful low-carbon projects and an understanding of the role that local authorities can play in the energy sector. The authority has demonstrated its commitment to renewable energy over a number of years, having installed solar PV and other measures on its buildings and developed challenging energy saving and carbon reduction targets through its Sustainability Strategy. The authority is committed to delivering a 50% reduction in carbon emissions from its own activities by 2025 and will increase the percentage of its energy from renewable sources. It is against this backdrop in 2012 that West Sussex County Council developed plans for a pan-Sussex energy partnership involving East Sussex County Council, Brighton & Hove City Council and 12 local district and borough councils. The partnership, called Your Energy Sussex, would help residents and businesses to reduce the amount of energy they use, cut carbon emission and save money. It would also help the local economy by recruiting Sussex-based SMEs to carry out much of the energy saving work – leading to an increase in investment, jobs, training places and apprenticeships. WSCC secured significant loan fund from the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to invest in energy projects that pay back and, in Carillion, procured a delivery partner with considerable energy services experience and the ability to deliver large projects successful. With Carillion in place by 2013 and a pipeline of potential energy projects taking shape, the partnership started to look at the viability of a largescale solar development on council-owned land as its first major project. A search for suitable WSCC-owned land revealed a 25-acre field on the edge of the former RAF airfield near Chichester and the idea for Tangmere Solar Farm was born. Being relatively close to a grid connection, of limited agricultural value and unsuitable for other kinds of development, the site quickly became a clear front-runner for a proposed 5 MW solar farm capable of powering up the 1,500 homes. Its location close to other buildings, including a number of warehouses, and away from residential developments in the village of Tangmere added to its suitability and made a positive planning decision more likely. By pre-registering the development and
securing, by current standards, an attractive feed-in-tariff the partnership was able to confidently forecast payback in less than 10 years for a 20-year project that would deliver income worth £13.8 million for the county council. With an estimated annual energy spend in excess of £11 million, the county council was also keen to use some of the energy generated at Tangmere through a power purchase agreement to offset its own costs and carbon footprint.
Building the solar farm With the planning process complete in January 2015 and permission to connect to the grid secured through the Distribution Network Operator (DNO), site preparations continued throughout the spring with an emphasis on meeting the rigorous planning conditions, particularly in relation to ecology and wildlife protection. Tree-work to minimise shading on the solar panels was finished just in time for the bird nesting season to begin. All work was carried out under the watchful eye of the county ecologist and great care was taken not to disturb natural habits. New habitats were created for birds and bats in line with the planning conditions and contractors carried out additional planting. Given the wartime past of RAF Tangmere and the solar farm’s location next to the former runway which had been heavily bombed during the Second World War, the construction phase inevitably uncovered a few surprises from the past. In addition to rubble and asbestos clearance from a few derelict buildings, the unexploded ordnance (UXO) survey uncovered more than 4,000 metallic ‘items of interest’ at varying depths under the surface – all of which needed to be checked out. The larger items had to be excavated, which took time and put the project timescales under pressure. Thankfully, nothing more than a few rounds of soggy ammunition and electrical cabling was found - but it could have been much worse. With the site preparation complete, the construction phase really gathered pace in August 2015. More than 2,800 piles were driven into the ground in 11 days and it took just 15 days to fit 18,300 solar panels. Local contractors excavated more than 3km of trenches and the cabling laid was enough to stretch end-to-end from Tangmere to London. Site commissioning took place in early September and, with final sign off from the DNO, Tangmere Solar Farm generated
its first low-carbon electricity in early October.
Beyond Tangmere Although Tangmere Solar Farm has been a landmark success for West Sussex County Council and Your Energy Sussex, the reduction in solar feed-in-tariffs in January 2016 has fundamentally changed the ground rules for the renewable energy sector. Your Energy Sussex is re-shaping its plans accordingly While Tangmere Solar Farm will continue to provide income, reduce carbon emissions and contribute to energy security in the county, delivering a project of this scale that is reliant on feed-in-tariffs is no longer viable for Your Energy Sussex. A different approach is needed. Included in the draft Your Energy Sussex business plan for 2016/17 is an explicit focus on linking medium to large scale solar developments to high energy consumers that are capable of using a high percentage of the low-carbon energy they generate. The partnership is talking to a number of public and private organisations with above-average energy consumption data and is involved in and EU-funded project to increase the amount of renewable energy generated and used by business parks. The partnership is also committed to carrying out further energy saving and renewable energy work with Sussex schools, having installed eight roof-mounted systems in 2016. The systems, which are up to 30 kWp in size, provide the schools with cheap, low-carbon electricity and deliver a financial return for the county council. Your Energy Sussex will be working with schools this year to put together a new package of support that could include solar PV coupled with a range of complementary energy saving measures. www.yourenergysussex.org.uk
Energy Manager Magazine • April 2016
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