Harworth Estates has begun the installation of a 5MW solar farm at the former Askern Colliery site in Doncaster in partnership with Anesco, the country’s leading energy efficiency solutions company.
The solar farm, set over 31 acres, will comprise over 20,000 solar panels and will generate enough energy to power over 1,500 homes once it becomes fully operational in the summer (2015). The panels feed energy into the national grid via a number of inverters, utilising the existing grid connection adjacent to the site.
This follows Harworth and Anesco installing and operating three new solar farms in Nottinghamshire in 2014. The largest of these three is at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, where an 11.2MW solar array became operational in July 2014. Two other 5MW solar farms followed at Bilsthorpe and Gedling later in the year.
Once the Askern scheme is complete, Anesco will have developed over 25MW of solar schemes on former Colliery sites owned by Harworth – providing enough power for over 7,500 homes.
Hannah Moxon, Assistant Management Surveyor, of Harworth Estates’ Natural Resources division, said: “This project further demonstrates our expertise at transforming previously-developed land to support low-carbon energy projects. We have a good working relationship with Anesco and are pleased that we will have four operational solar schemes in place by the summer to support the UK’s energy mix.”
Lee Adams, Director of Solar at Anesco, said: “Haworth Estates is an excellent partner and the former Askern Colliery site represents a perfect opportunity for us as it fulfils the criteria in the National Planning Policy Framework of utilising low grade land like landfill that has previously been developed, rather than utilising high value agricultural land.”
Harworth has developed a number of renewable energy schemes on its landholdings in partnership with a number of other leading energy companies, creating new clean energy to power thousands of homes and businesses every year. The Harworth portfolio currently includes three operational wind schemes and three operational solar farms. Harworth’s Natural Resources division is dedicated to developing low-carbon energy developments, with a pipeline of projects with the potential to deliver 170MW of power from its low-carbon energy schemes – enough to power 50,000 family homes.
Anesco is a national company dedicated to helping homeowners, local authorities and businesses reduce their carbon emissions. It provides companies with a comprehensive energy service from audits through to recommendations, installations and capital funding plans. The team provides a complete turnkey service, from insulation solutions, solar PV and ground source heat pumps, LED Street Lighting, Battery Storage through to micro generation design, installation and maintenance.
Anesco is approved as a Green Deal Provider and has been recognised as the second fastest growing cleantech in Europe and as one of the top 100 cleantech companies in the world. In 2013 and 2014 the company was named the UK’s fastest growing private company in the prestigious Sunday Times Fast Track 100.