Renewables developer Low Carbon has started building four solar farms in the Netherlands totalling 53.1MWp, with Belectric serving as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) provider.
Set to feature a total of 88,000 solar modules, the projects will be spread across the Groningen, Overijssel and Utrecht provinces, and will have capacities of 26.7MWp, 10,3MWp, 8.7MWp and 7.4MWp. The largest plant – the Groningen site – will be co-located with a battery energy storage system.
The four farms are the first to be financed by the multi-bank debt facility that Low Carbon recently established. Working with three of the UK and Ireland’s largest banks – Natwest, Lloyds Bank and AIB – the facility is expected to deploy around 1GW of renewable energy in partnership with Low Carbon.
One of the four projects, near Wijk bij Duurstede in Utrecht province, will feature agrivoltaics, the practice of incorporating PV projects with agricultural land. Low Carbon said that the agrivoltaics site will be monitored by researchers from Wageningen University and TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research).
LC Energy – a joint venture between Low Carbon and engineering firm Qing – oversaw development of the projects.
Roy Bedlow, chief executive and founder at Low Carbon, said: “Today’s announcement marks an important milestone for Low Carbon. The four large-scale projects will be the first financed by our multi-bank financing facility, enabling 1GW of new solar capacity.
“They also are the latest instalment in our growing international portfolio, and further evidence of our ambition to create 20GW of renewable energy capacity by the end of this decade.”
Agrivoltaic projects are becoming more common across the solar industry. PV Tech Premium recently explored the features of ‘Europe’s largest solar plant’ where disused agricultural land is being transformed into pasture for sheep alongside PV installations.