Every new site undergoes a desktop review looking at several key elements of land, planning and grid suitability that combine to define a successful solar farm location. Should a site be successful in this process, we issue a ‘heads of terms’ document that contains our financial and legal offer to the landowner. This document indicates the term of the land lease and the yearly rental income. Once this is agreed we conduct a title search of the property and enter into an option to lease agreement.
We engage our professional team to complete all the required studies including environmental, ecology, heritage, landscape and visual impact, glint and glare, and noise assessments. Once initial designs are complete we go through a consultation process to seek feedback and amend the designs. This is to ensure we have addressed all the potential issues prior to submitting a planning application.
We always keep the land owner up to date with progress.
Once all the regulatory consents have been obtained, we finalise the detailed construction design taking into account any planning conditions that were determined by the planning process.
Our experience allows us to optimise the design so that the completed plant will deliver superior performance.
Typically this is the quickest part of the development, with sites up to 50MW in size taking 12 – 16 weeks to construct. Larger projects can take 12 – 18 months. We work with leading Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors who have a wealth of experience in constructing solar farms.
Once built there is a short period of testing before the solar farm is commissioned and operational.
