Construction of a 10 MW solar farm as part of the UK’s first hybrid solar PV, energy storage and wind site has officially started.

The 10,000 photovoltaic panels installed at the Carland Cross site in Cornwall, southern England, are to complement the existing 20 MW wind farm and the 1 MW battery energy storage system. This is the first time that these technologies have been combined on such a scale and is part of a larger portfolio of hybrid sites planned by ScottishPower, owned by Iberdrola.

These plans to modernize UK utility wind farms with solar power and storage were first announced at the end of 2019, following the company’s request to build a 40 MW solar farm with 10 MW of battery storage in Scotland, supported by a private wired connection to pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline.

Plans to install a 40 MW solar farm and 50 MW battery storage at the site of its Whitelee wind farm – currently the UK’s largest onshore wind farm – are also underway, to support the production of ‘green hydrogen.

The solar PV installed at the Carland Cross site is expected to make its first export later this year, to be followed by two more solar farms at ScottishPower’s wind farms.

Keith Anderson, CEO of ScottishPower, said: “There is no doubt that we are in a race against time and speed is essential, but with this comes a tremendous opportunity and our message is clear: if you divide in half the time, we’ll double the investment – and that will bring about meaningful and lasting change.

Large-scale solar development in the UK continues to grow, with the pipeline of new ground sites reaching nearly 17 GW by the end of April 2021, with 800 to 900 MW of new sites identified each month according to Solar Media’s latest market research. .

In March alone, Statkraft unveiled two new projects with a combined capacity of 84 MWp to be developed in Cornwall and a third 41.5 MWp project located in Suffolk to be paired with a 55 MW battery, while Lightsource bp has revealed it will use almost £ 20million. government funding to develop a solar-powered green hydrogen project in the South Wales industrial hub and EDF has acquired two 49.9 MW projects.

Large Scale Solar Deployment in UK to be Covered by Solar Media Market Research’s Utility Solar Summit UK event, which will take place June 15-16, 2021. For more information about this virtual conference, including how to participate, click here.