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Saving the power of daylight the rise and rise of solar
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The Barry Solar Array in South Wales. Developed by Associated British Ports the solar farm generates clean energy for ABP, its port tenants and the National Grid. Photo: Stephen Davies Photography
Saving the power of daylight: the rise and rise of solar
available, and its vital and increasing role in helping achieve the net zero target by 2050 in Wales is assured.
As a source of renewable energy, the harvesting of solar energy divides into two technologies: Solar PV (Photovoltaic) and thermal solar. Each uses solar panels. Solar PV captures the sun’s rays and directly converts them into electricity. Thermal solar creates heat for buildings, with sunlight being used to heat fluid - usually water and glycol - that via a heat exchanger, heats water. That heat can also be used to generate electricity. Solar PV currently accounts for around 12% of the total renewable electricity generation in Wales - delivered through thousands of PV projects generating about 924 GWh of power.
The Welsh Government has set a target for at least 1GW of renewable energy capacity should be locally owned by 2030. Wales is doing well, having reached at least 783MW of locally owned capacity, nearly 80% of the way to meeting the 1GW target. Solar is largely responsible. There are more than 64,000 locally owned renewable energy projects in Wales, and 83% of these are solar PV projects.
These range from pilots powering domestic fuel pumps and generating energy for active buildings, to larger scale projects like the 9,000 panel solar farm created by Flintshire County Council, which generates 3.5MWh of
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electricity per year year (enough to power 900 homes); and the Egni Coop/Newport City Council project that built the largest rooftop solar array in Wales at the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome, with its 1,726 solar panels supplying more than 60% of the building’s electricity demands.
Encouraged by the introduction of the Smart Export Guarantee in 2020, which ensured electricity suppliers offer tariffs to small-scale low-carbon generators for electricity exported to the national grid, the number of smallscale generators for the grid is likely to grow - a characteristic that is changing the dynamics of the electricity system.
Solar farms
Commissioned in 2011, Western Solar’s solar park at Rhosygilwen was the first large-scale Solar PV plant in Wales, effectively creating - from an electricity perspective - a significant carbonneutral region in north Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. Its array of 1,200 photovoltaic panels generate up to 1,200 kW of electricity, enough to power 500 homes.
At 72.2 MWp, Shotwick Solar Park in Deeside, Flintshire, on an 89ha site, is the largest solar park in the UK and the largest private wire connection in Britain, supporting the operations of the UPM paper manufacturing plant and with the flexibility to export to the grid.
Falling costs and innovation in solar PV design, finance and system integration have led to subsidy-free solar farms starting to be developed, with largescale developers looking to private wire and power purchase agreements to make their projects viable.
Currently under consideration are a raft of projects across Wales. Cardiff Council has received planning permission to turn the former Lamby Way landfill site into a solar farm the size of 20 Principality Stadium pitches. The 17ha farm will be able to power around 2,900 homes per year.
The recently announced subsidy-free Blue Eden initiative for Swansea Bay aims to create the largest floating solar array in the UK. Planned for the Queens Dock area it would capable of generating up to 5.25MWh to be used to power eco housing and operations on site, and be made available to the national grid.
In Gwent, the Penpergym Solar Farm, near Abergavenny, if approved, will supply up to 40MWp of renewable energy to the grid, equivalent to the energy needs of more than 11,000 households - 27 per cent of Monmouthshire’s homes each year. Continued growth for solar is a given. There are currently more than a dozen applications for large-scale solar PV projects in the planning system in South Wales - and at least seven projects either approved or in the planning system in the north.
This pipeline demonstrates the continuing appetite for solar, despite concerns expressed at the community level over large projects.
Meanwhile, the Welsh Government’s National Development Framework 2020-2040 continues to set out a highly optimistic vision for solar, offering support in identified areas for development of large-scale solar PV, with a focus on maximising the local benefits such projects can bring.
In Cardiff’s west, the Parc Dyffryn solar farm on a 96ha site is on the drawing board. If approved it will produce 682.5 GW of electricity per year, enough to power more than 20,000 homes.
An even larger project, the 809 ha Môn Solar Farm in Anglesey, plans to have a capacity of 350MW, enough to power more than 130,000 homes a year. The solar energy produced at Môn Solar would deliver an emissions saving of 167,000 tonnes, equivalent to taking more than 35,000 fossil fuel-burning cars off the roads.
Such major projects are classed as Developments of National Significance and the Welsh Government is responsible for deciding whether they go ahead. In order to receive approval, rigorous planning procedures must be passed, taking into account the suitability of the site, and any potential impact on the locality and environment.
