Bath and West Community Energy’s new 4 MW solar farm in Devon has gone live. BWCE stepped in to help Plymouth Energy Community raise the finance when the opportunity arose to purchase the farm from the developer. Due to construction timescales, communities local to the solar array site were not in a position to purchase the solar array themselves straight away. Without BWCE’s involvement, the solar array might have been lost as a community scheme. BWCE plans to allow the local communities the opportunity to buy into the solar array at the end of the initial 2 year term of this bond. Over $5M was raised to pay for the solar farm.
The 4MW solar farm has been built in the old Lee Moor China Clay works, and will provide enough electricity to power more than 1,000 homes: