Infinis Litchardon Solar Farm Site Visit
On Monday 14th November LCCC colleagues Alex Graves, Andrew Varnava, Soby Nonju and Edwina Banafu-Hackman visited the Infinis Litchardon Solar Farm in Devon. They were met at the site by Jon Crouch, Commercial Manager and Adam Mugan, Project Manager from Infinis Energy Group, the AR4 Generator.
The site is a Solar PV farm and on completion will have 112,000 panels and 230 inverters with an initial capacity estimate (ICE) of 49.9MW megawatts.
The inverters convert the Direct Current (DC) power generated by the PV panels to Alternating Current (AC), which is then converted to a higher voltage for distribution. The Solar PV panels on this site are bi-facial panels, meaning that the panels can absorb energy that is directly focused and captured by the top of the panel and any energy reflected off the ground by the underside.
This generator has exceeded expectations and has already achieved their Milestone Requirement in September 2022, 15months ahead of schedule, the first of the 98, AR4 contracts to do so.
The Milestone Delivery Date (MDD) occurs 18months after the agreement between the Generator and LCCC is signed. The purpose of MDD is to satisfy LCCC that the Generator is on track to complete the project and be online, generating low carbon electricity, by the Target Commissioning Date (TCD).
There are two ways that a generator can achieve the MDD: The generator provides evidence that:
- 10% of Total Project Pre-Commissioning Cost have been spent
- Sufficient plans and orders for Material Equipment
Infinis, the generator, has a sister Solar PV site at Bishampton which is also progressing well.
Jon Crouch, Commercial Manager, Infinis has stated that Infinis were delighted to host LCCC at their Litchardon solar site. Upon granting of the CfD contract in summer 2022 the 50MW site has moved swiftly into construction. Once operational the site will produce enough electricity to power more than 17,000 homes. The visit brought to life some of the more technical aspects of administering the CfD, such as detailed site overviews/facility descriptions. The week before the visit Infinis successfully achieved its MDD – celebrations all round!
Alex, Andrew, Soby and Edwina found the visit informative and were impressed not just by the scale of the operation and how quickly the generator has set the operation in motion but how organised they were to receive visitors. They were also impressed by some of the nuances on site, namely the section cordoned off for “archaeological” reasons and the environmental requirement for the project to provide a badger hotel to protect them in contradiction to the farmers culling the badgers. The site was well maintained and closely monitored with safety being paramount in everything they do.
Perhaps a return visit in late spring/early summer to see the site when operational will give colleagues the opportunity to see the panels in place and how the site is progressing.