Portuguese PV developer Martifer Solar has successfully completed five solar parks totalling 28.1MW in the UK.
As reported by PV-Tech’s sister site Solar Power Portal, the four solar parks were constructed in Cornwall, Hampshire, Devon and Wiltshire and range from 4.4MW to 6.63MW in scale. In total the cluster of solar developments cover 75 hectares housing over 114,000 solar PV modules. Martifer estimates that the parks will generate around 27.74GWh of clean energy every year.
Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis
Photovoltaics International is now included.
- Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
- In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
- Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
- Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
- Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
- Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual
“With these projects, Martifer Solar assumes, in a very expressive way, a commitment to the solar and renewables industry in the UK. Following a first stage in which we completed the projects’ development/licensing, we are very proud with the conclusion of another challenging period, for the construction and commissioning of the plants. Again, our company distinguishes itself in 2013, where we have even more ambitious goals, which will place ourselves as one of the main companies in the sector,” says João Cunha, country manager of Martifer Solar in the UK.
The Portuguese company has agreed to sell all five projects to Lightsource Renewable Energy. The partnership will see the entire cluster of 28.1MW added to the UK company’s asset management portfolio while Martifer Solar will be retained under an operations and maintenance contract.
Commenting on the deal, Nick Boyle, managing director of Lightsource Renewable Energy added: “he entire cluster was completed on time, fitting in line nicely with the ROC changes from April onwards.
“It has been made very clear in recent times that solar is a key component in the UK’s drive towards its renewable energy targets. We hope solar subsidies will continue at sensible levels to assist in making solar competitive with other energy sources and our goal of reaching grid parity within a predicted six years. This would also help to build a stable and profitable industry that would no longer need to rely on government incentives by 2017. Renewable energy sources and schemes, such as this undertaken by Martifer Solar, need to become an integral part of our domestic power output if we are to achieve the government’s target of 15% of the UK’s electricity being generated from renewable sources by 2020.”
