Belfast International Airport Solar Farm Saves £100K–And Guess Who Pays?

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
http://ift.tt/16C5B6P

By Paul Homewood

Hugh Sharman sent me this story from EDIE, who describe themselves as the market-leading information resource driving sustainability in business for nearly 20 years.

The 4.84MWp Crookedstone facility, located a third of a mile from the airport’s terminal building, is also set to save 2,100 tonnes of carbon emissions each year – equivalent to taking 469 cars off the road.

The solar farm generates more than a quarter of Belfast International’s annual electricity needs, and has reportedly enabled the airport to run on solar power alone for nine hours at certain peak generation times.

Belfast International Airport operations director Alan Whiteside said: "The solar farm project has exceeded all expectations. From switch-on in March to the end of the year, the ‘ballpark’ savings were over £100,000.

“The project is consistently delivering a reliable ‘green’ and cost-saving energy supply for the airport. No other airport in either the rest of the UK or Ireland has a similar energy source and we’re delighted with its operation."

Crookedstone is the largest solar energy connection to an airport in the UK and Ireland. The entire project was funded and operated by solar generator Lightsource Renewable Energy through a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), the largest of its kind for UK airports.

http://ift.tt/2oCE95D

Here’s what EDIE forgot to mention:

1) The project receives payment through the Northern Ireland Renewable Obligation incentive, as it beat the deadline of 1st April 2016, when the subsidy scheme was closed to new solar projects.

Currently the RO is worth about £53/MWh to solar projects (they are awarded 1.2 units per MWh; each unit is worth about £44).

Assuming a load factor of 11% (the UK average), the solar farm would produce about 4600 MWh a year, so the subsidy receive from the RO is worth £244,000 a year.

So when Belfast International Airport brags that it has saved £100,000, just remember that it is electricity bill payers across the UK, who are actually paying for it.

2) As the Irish Farmers Journal also points out:

“The PPA with Belfast International Airport allows Lightsource to sell electricity at a higher rate than it would by exporting power to the national grid. However, a grid connection is still present to export electricity when supply is greater than the airport’s demand.”

By cutting out the middleman, in this case the National Grid, it is hardly surprising the airport can save money.

However, the Grid is still there, and still needs to be paid for by somebody. And as is pointed out, the airport still needs access to it for the 73% of their electricity that the solar farm can’t supply.

So, again, it is everybody else that has to pay the bills that Belfast International have avoided.

It is, of course, doubly ironic that a large chunk of these grid costs are to pay for all of the renewable subsidy schemes, which Lightsource and the airport have generously benefitted from.