Lark Energy Developing Three Solar Projects

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - Six months after commissioning the U.K.'s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) project Lark Energy (Market Deeping, Lincolnshire) has announced plans for three more solar projects.

Lark Energy is teaming up with Armstrong Energy to deliver farms with a combined generating capacity of almost 30-megawatts (MW) in the Lincolnshire and Rutland are of England. The three projects are located in Limes Farm, Bourne, Lincolnshire (5.7 MW), Burton Pedwardine, Lincolnshire (14 MW), and at the Hansen Cement Ketton Works in Rutland (9 MW).

Armstrong Energy has acquired the project rights and is providing the finance, with Lark Energy developing the projects and providing both EPC and O&M services.

The solar farm at Limes Farm in Bourne was completed and commissioned before the end of March 2013. It uses almost 20,000 panels and can produce enough energy to power 1,450 homes per year.

The first 9 MW phase of the Burton Pedwardine project is almost finished, Lark Energy confirmed, and will be connected to the grid by the end of this month. The third project is on brownfield land at Hanson's Ketton Cement Works in Rutland. Construction started in October and most of the energy produced will be used by the plant onsite.

Jonathan Selwyn, Managing Director of Lark Energy said: "These projects provide significant new clean energy capacity on the local electricity network. All three projects had the support of the local authority and the wider community. The Ketton project is notable for its brownfield location and significant on-site energy use. We remain optimistic about the long term prospects for the U.K.'s large scale solar sector. We have worked successfully with [Armstrong] on previous projects and look forward to working with them on further projects over the coming months."

In May this year, Lark Energy, landowner Prestwold Estates and project owners Hazel Capital commissioned the 34 MW Wymeswold solar farm, located at the abandoned World War II Wymeswold Airfield. With 130,000 solar panels laid out on land between the old runways, covering an area of approximately 150 acres, it is the U.K.'s largest operational solar far,. Lark Energy said it took just eight weeks to develop and was commissioned just before changes to the U.K. government's feed-in-tariff (FiT) for solar projects. The project cost €41.5 million ($52 million) to complete. For additional information, see May 1, 2013, article - Largest Solar Farm in U.K. Goes Live.

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