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As above work have a redundant site of about 1 acre and after some googling that seems to be about the minimum size for a decent output.
Could anyone give me a rough idea how much this would cost to set up and any good contacts for information.
Thanks
where are you?
if rural: how close to a 33/11kVA line are you?
if urban: how big is your substation/transformer on the site?
its been a couple of years since i was in solar, but i still have a few contacts in certain parts.
Ill have a check of the size of the nearset substation, it should be fine as its in an urban area.
We've had a big rush with these at work, as the subsidies are going to be slashed shortly. That would be the first thing to check out as you may not have time to get it through planning.
I run the National Solar Centre www.bre.co.uk/nsc
Rule of thumb is 5 acres per MW, so 1 acre should give you ~200kW depending on the layout, shading, access, how square the space it. Helps if it is well screened but equally you don't want any much shading.
At this scale, costs should be around £900-1000 / kW installed. Plus grid connection fees which are highly variable. Your local DNO will have a process for giving you a budget estimate.
Also given that the FIT subsidy is about to change / potentially be scrapped, you'll need to look very closely at time scales. Most decent contractors will already have loads of work.
If you can use all of the solar electricity generation in your workplace, it will make the economics must better (and possibly work without subsidy). Depending on the site and your location you should generate around 800-1100 kWh/kW/yr, so 200kW would give around 190,000kWh/yr. Should make sense to size the solar to meet the demand, rather than max out the site.
Happy to chat about this if you send me a DM or email.
If you're in the Newcastle area, I'm Head of System Design for your local DNO, Northern Powergrid.
My email is in my profile if you want to have a chat about grid connection issues. Won't be me that designs it but asking for very slightly different things can noticeably affect your connection costs. My basic advice is talk to us early.
Ill have a check of the size of the nearset substation, it should be fine as its in an urban area.
Beware, urban areas and substation size doesn't guarantee anything.
Also given that the FIT subsidy is about to change / potentially be scrapped, you'll need to look very closely at time scales. Most decent contractors will already have loads of work.
This. The subsidy has just fallen off a cliff, and has rendered many schemes unviable.