Irish clean-tech firm BNRG to build €35m solar park in the UK

BNRG Renewables, an Irish solar-farm developer, is to start the build of a solar park worth €35m in the UK in September. The Dublin company will be partnering with London-based Lightsource Renewable Energy, after securing a 25-year planning permission to construct the 20-megawatt park in Kent – that’s according to BNRG director David Maguire, an environmental scientist. The new solar park could be operational by January 2014. During the build, up to 120 construction jobs are expected to come on-stream.

Apparently, this could be one of the UK’s biggest solar parks when built.

BNRG’s main speciality is in developing utility-scale solar PV plants that have low carbon footprints.

Maguire, who co-founded BNRG Renewables with fellow director Neil Holman, said the solar park will span 120 acres at Sycamore Farm, Old Romney in Kent.

He said that, when built, the farm’s combined solar PV panels will have the scope to produce enough electricity to power more than 6,600 homes in the UK for 30 years.

Up to 82,000 solar panels, each with a capacity of 245 watts, will be deployed at the solar park.

Maguire said the solar farm would have a zero carbon-emission output. He said that the goal would be for the farm to help the UK lower its overall national carbon emissions.