Photovoltaic news and pv jobs

UK: 30 MW PV park in the planning

Lark Energy has announced it is currently working on a 30 MW photovoltaic park in the U.K. When complete, it will be the country’s largest. In related news, solar investment opportunities in the country have been highlighted.

Lark has installed 15 MW of photovoltaics in the UK to date.

Lark Energy

The large-scale project will be located in Leicestershire, at the site of a former World War II airfield. It is expected to comprise around 125,000 photovoltaic modules, spread across 150 acres of land.

In related news, the U.K-based company has installed a total of 15 MW of photovoltaics, or around 65,000 modules – both rooftop and ground-mount –  in the east of England and the East Midlands to date.

On the solar situation in the U.K., Lark Energy managing director, Jonathan Selwyn, commented, "The government recently brought long-awaited certainty to the solar industry in its announcement that current Feed in Tariff (FIT) rates will remain until the end of July. New rates will be introduced from August  … these new tariff levels will still provide a very reasonable rate of return."

Solar investment

This year’s Solar Future UK conference, scheduled to be held in London on June 26, is expected to highlight the "abundant" solar investment opportunities available in the U.K. "Many installers focusing on feed-in tariffs alone may be missing out on other project opportunities to sustain their businesses," said Solarplaza in a statement released.

One FIT alternative is the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC), it said, and another is crowd funding. Ray Noble of the country’s Solar Trade Association, commented, "Projects over five MW are ineligible for FITs payments, but will receive incentive payments under the Renewable Obligation – and there’s no capacity limit for systems funded under ROCs."