Projects

The first and most important factor in determining the location of a solar farm is access to and capacity on the electricity grid. Ideally projects will be located within 5km of a substation that has capacity. For UK & Australian sites, overhead lines passing through the site are useful too.

Elgin Energy is identifying sites that are 70 acres or larger for solar farms.

Installation in Ireland and the UK is very quick. The largest solar farm in Northern Ireland, Bann Road, 46MW covering 180 acres was installed and energised in four months. Installation in Australia can take longer due to harsher ground conditions and larger project size.

The first step is building the substation. Substations are small buildings that house equipment connecting the solar farm to the grid. The only concrete poured on site is for the substation and inverter bases. Inverters convert the electricity from direct current produced by solar panels to grid compatible alternating current. There is approximately one inverter per MW installed and their location is site specific and suitably located within the existing landscape. The arrays are constructed by driving galvanised steel poles into the ground. The mounting frame is secured to these poles and solar panels are fixed to these frames. No concrete is poured for these arrays. Installation of tracking systems is much the same as the mounting frame with steel posts driven into the ground and no concrete poured. All cabling across the site is buried underground.

Solar farms typically occupy less than 5% of the ground they cover as the steel posts are the only component on the ground, aside from the substation and inverter stations. This leaves huge scope for biodiversity. A timber and post “deer” fence is included as part of the site design for Irish & UK projects. It has a gap of 10cm at ground level to allow wildlife to pass through. Solar farms encourage ecological growth as they are tranquil, largely undisturbed sites which do not require heavy machinery or intensive farming to maintain. Existing hedgerow and site vegetation are retained and additional hedgerows are planted to minimise views and encourage increased biodiversity. Ecological Appraisals are carried out as part of the planning process to identify what animals are present and to ensure no protected species are inhabiting the site. Tree surveys are conducted to detail existing trees in and around the site and to identify exposed or endangered trees. Construction exclusion zones (CEZ) are imposed where necessary to protect trees. For our UK & Irish projects, the soil is left fallow for the lifetime of the project allowing the soil to regenerate. Planting of suitable flowers/vegetation is also included as part of the site design for these projects. Where possible, beehives and/or insect hotels are installed too providing additional biodiversity enhancements.

There is no permanent lighting on site across our solar farms. For health & safety reasons, there will be temporary task lighting on site during standard working hours.

The only moving parts on UK & Irish solar farms are the fans in the inverter station. The fan within the inverter is the same size and rating of a fan that is found in most domestic bathrooms. For Australian sites, trackers may be installed. These are additional moving parts emitting a low noise.