The introduction of government subsidies for the production of renewable energy has created a new cash crop in Britain’s countryside - solar power.
Solar energy photovoltaic (PV) parks are all-ready commonplace across Europe and experts are expecting an influx of German, Spanish and Italian companies wanting to fill British fields with solar panels.
MO3 Power, the UK-based solar developer and Independent Power Producer (IPP), is the market leader in developing brown field sites to create solar parks.
The company develops, builds and operates quality, large-scale, solar PV parks in the Midlands, Southern England, East Anglia and South Wales. MO3 partner with landowners and enable them to benefit from solar energy without any of the costs of construction, ownership, operation or maintenance.
In order to meet our carbon reduction commitment, 20% of Britain’s power has to be created by renewable sources by 2020 and the Government’s ’feed-in-tariffs’ offer cash guarantees for the next 25 years on every unit of electricity generated from solar energy.
"By investing in renewables landowners are developing new income streams from land or buildings that may be being underused," said mO3 founder and Chairman John Moreton.
""The tariff system is designed to offer an 8pc to 10pc rate of return on projects of all sizes. It needs to at this level to be attractive to investors, whether roof or ground mounted projects. The government is aware of this and has set the tariffs accordingly," says mO3 Power CEO Ken Moss.
"Using brown field sites removes some of the planning restrictions that can inhibit developments on agricultural land because the larger brown field sites have been re-claimed from any number of previous uses such as heavy industry, or are remediated land."
"By focusing on brown field, mO3 are acting responsibly and in many cases assisting in delivering regional regeneration plans. Each park will generate in excess of a million pounds a year but the development costs are substantial, costing £14m per solar park to build," said Mr. Moss.
An average barn roof could generate as much as £20,000 a year if devoted to power generating photovoltaic solar panels.
According to mO3 larger brown field sites that have been re-claimed from any number of previous uses could generate over a million pounds a year for landowners of all kinds but the investments are substantial, costing £14m per solar park to build.
MO3’s Chairman John Morton has 25 years experience in the use of renewables. In the 1970’s he founded Monotherm in New Zealand which manufactures insulation from newsprint and installed it in over 30,000 homes. Monotherm insulation proved so effective that it attracted Government subsidies.
More recently Mr Moreton has successfully developed his own sustainable power generation capacity using biomass at his estate in Hampshire and is currently seeking planning for his own solar park. His plan is to be power self-sufficient using renewable energy projects.
