49.9 Mw solar farm

[G7PSK]

There are plans under-way to build the largest solar farm in Europe here in sunny Norfolk, this is just a few hundred meters from where I live. So I asked them if i can do a photo documentation of the construction and the company has just said yes, so is any one interested in this and more importantly is Dave willing to let me clutter up his site with some of the photographs when they start the build.
At present the company is selecting contractors but construction should start in the spring/summer.

http://www.goodenergygroup.co.uk/announcements/2013/12/20/good-energy-group-plc-announces-provisional-approval-for-its-49-9mw-solar-farm-in-norfolk

There ought be some interesting stuff with inverters etc. I don't know if they do all the conversion to AC in one go or several separate units but find out when they put it all up.

[SeanB]

Good, there is a similar farm built in sunny South Africa, but it is pretty far away from me. They use a system of smaller inverters to handle the output of a small block of panels and then combine it all into a grid transformer for feeding into the grid. They built it in the location it is in because they could both get the lease cheap, and there was a power line right there. Also helps that they pretty much get 365 days of full sunshine a year.

[DmitryL]

There are plans under-way to build the largest solar farm in Europe here in sunny Norfolk, this is just a few hundred meters from where I live. So I asked them if i can do a photo documentation of the construction and the company has just said yes, so is any one interested in this and more importantly is Dave willing to let me clutter up his site with some of the photographs when they start the build.

I wonder if someone did a "back enevelope" calculations before building a solar farm in the place where you can have 350 days of rains in a year.. Or is it a usual political barainfart ?

[SeanB]

Must have been the only place without a NIMBY around then.

[grumpydoc]

It has always puzzled me why we are not building this sort of thing in places where the sun is more guaranteed - and perhaps why we aren't using "simpler" technology such as solar furnaces rather than voltaic cells.

I know that there are political arguments against some areas with suitable weather - but then we accept that a lot of our oil comes from places with less than ideal political regimens.

Pissing money away sticking solar panels on the roofs of houses in climates with feck all sunshine has never struck me as the best way to go about renewables.

Especially when I get to have to pay for it.

[SeanB]

You are aware politicians love spending other peoples money, especially if they can grab a chunk for themselves along the way. Poly= many Ticks= blood sucking parasites.

[G7PSK]

This is the second solar farm in the area, there is already one about 3 miles away. Not as big but a good few mega watts.
What they really are is subsidy farms.
But I will find it interesting as to how they are built any-way, whatever the politics.

[wilheldp]

Is there a hill somewhere near the build site?  If so, you could just set up a camera and do a 1 shot per day timelapse of the build.  That would get any interesting photos during the build, and give you an awesome timelapse movie at the end.

[Rerouter]

if he was doing that, 1 shot per hour would be more interesting, as when contractors get into the flow of things they can really get moving,

[G7PSK]

No hills the site is an old airfield (RAF west Raynham). Any way the first stages are not really that interesting, it's just the driving of thousands of piles ( more stakes really only about 3M long c section made of pressed galvanized) in a grid that the solar panels are mounted on, I saw this going on with the other solar farm.
I would think the bit that is interesting will be the fitting of the control gear and inverters but I will photograph all stages and take some video as the work progresses.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

This is a common misconception about solar. Even when it is overcast solar panels work just fine. They don't produce quite as much, but they work. In fact on a heavily overcast day you get about 80% as much energy as on a clear day.

My experience has been you get about 10-20% of the energy out of a cell, while the sun is blocked by cloud.

NASA has some data about the average solar irradiation for every spot on earth, it is quite useful. It is in a spreadsheet.
It is measured in hours of direct sunlight per day and obviously depends on the time of year. ie no cloud.
I think here we get 6 hours per day in summer and 3 in winter.
The rain is not directly the issue, but it sounds like the lack of sun is.

[baljemmett]

Also I don't know where you get your stats from but 350 days a year of rain is a pretty epic brainfart. Are you really suggesting that they only get 15 days without rain over there?

I believe the Elan Valley claims to be the most rained-on part of Britain (hence its use as a set of giant reservoirs), with an average of 235 days of rain a year.

[DmitryL]

Also I don't know where you get your stats from but 350 days a year of rain is a pretty epic brainfart. Are you really suggesting that they only get 15 days without rain over there?

My numbers came from long observations of the local weather - I live in a sunny Essex

[G7PSK]

I am in Norfolk which is east Anglia, the driest part of the UK, an hour drive from the where there is the least rainfall in the UK aptly named the Isle of Ely, due to rivers that surround it.
With some luck I should be able to talk to the installation engineers and find out what the output is in reality.Rather than the figures published for the benefit of the politicians and public.

[peter.mitchell]

All i can say is "why not 50Mw?"

[G7PSK]

All i can say is "why not 50Mw?"

My sentiments exactly, it's so close. Perhaps it's to do with the trade description act, and just covering themselves as there will be many out there who will pick them up on the plant not really beeing capable on generating 50Mw when the panels are only enough for 49.9. I will ask them in my next communication with them.