ET Energy builds 26 MW of solar across the UK

ET Energy, the global solar project development arm of Chinese PV company ET Solar, has announced that is has commissioned 26 MW of solar PV capacity across the U.K., building six sites at locations in England, Wales and Scotland.

Constructed as turnkey EPC projects by ET Solutions, a subsidiary of ET Energy, the solar farms were commissioned prior to March 31 and thus were eligible to receive Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) at a rate of 1.2.

The spread of the solar farms is noteworthy, and includes one project built on a dormant landfill site in Wales – something that ET Energy said presented a new set of engineering and construction challenges, particularly when working against that March 31 deadline.

For Octopus Energy Investments, which acquired the development rights for the projects from ET Energy at the end of 2016, getting the entire 26 MW commissioned and grid connected on time was of paramount importance.

“The 1.2 ROC subsidy cliff made this a challenging project,” said the head of Octopus Energy Investments Matt Setchell. “As ever, the March deadline placed pressure on construction timetables Our solar experience, together with ET Energy’s development and construction capabilities, proved a successful combination.”

The U.K.’s ROC cliff served to deliver a first-quarter installation rush for the country’s solar sector, with a large number of developers completing PV projects ahead of April 1. This rush will account for the bulk of large-scale solar additions in the U.K. in 2017, with the country’s solar landscape now evolving more and more towards distributed generation (DG) atop homes and C&I buildings.