Dragon Infrastructure Solutions, one of the UK’s largest, truly independent connections providers announced that it has now broken the 500MWp barrier for solar connections in the UK.
The success follows the news that as of 1 April 2015 developers are no longer allowed to claim support under the renewable obligation (RO) scheme for solar farms over 5MWp. This inevitably created a surge of activity for developers looking to complete and connect all >5MW solar farm projects in time to receive financial support under the scheme.
Simon Phipps, CEO at DragonIS, explained the latest rule changes: “As of the new financial year, photovoltaic (PV) projects smaller than 5MW will continue to operate under the RO and Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) scheme, while anything larger goes into the contracts for difference (CfDs) scheme. The change to CfDs will see all renewable energy projects pitching against each other for a central pot of funding Announced in March, five solar projects were successful under CFDs, but currently only three will be built.”
DragonIS connected a total of 12 sites in March alone, totalling 150MWp. The importance of each connection was enormous, as the developers relied solely on DragonIS to complete the connection before the March 31st deadline passed. Two sites were a particular challenge, because they required in excess of 9km of excavation, under very tight time constraints.
Simon Phipps concluded: “The future is looking bright for the renewables industry and I predict that the busy start we have experienced in 2015 will continue for the foreseeable future. I am thrilled that we have broken the 500MWp barrier, but we are now looking forward. We already have 12 new projects contracted, which is a staggering achievement for any organisation.”
