UK based Solar farm developments
With very attractive returns on investment here in the UK, Viridis Partner Peter Moore explains how their involvement in grid connected Solar Farms in the UK is pushing forward electrical technology to the limit to meet demands of this growing area of Renewable Energy.
The rapid increase in the construction of photovoltaic (PV), grid-tied solar farms has created a surge in the demand for utility-grade inverters. These inverters convert the DC current generated by the PV cells into low voltage AC power. The inverters are coupled to a distribution transformer then stepped up to medium voltage, generally 12 kV or 34.5 kV, for collection in an interconnect substation. The interconnect substation steps the voltage up again to the utility transmission voltage, generally in the 69 kV to 345 kV range.
While many inverters consist of a durable enclosure that can withstand normal weather conditions, developers prefer constructing a walk-in, metal enclosure to protect the inverters and other power equipment from extreme conditions and better manage air flow around the equipment. These pre-wired, outdoor-rated inverter enclosure reduces project engineering costs, accelerates project schedules, and significantly decreases the cost of on-site labor and installation. In addition, the power equipment line-up also includes fully redundant DC combiner boxes, step-up transformers and medium voltage switchgear. Numerous designs have emerged over the past year including options for cooling, transformer location, and the like.
The biggest wind bags are the Tories. Just wait until the Budget measures are announced and see how much gasping they retort in the House of Commons. No matter what the Chancellor does, no matter if he favoured the rich like the Tories do, they would still complain and ridicule. It’s a certain fact, the Tories have the largest amount of hot air.
The modern blades are very light thus the wind can spin them well. These blades are also well designed and the biggest problem most windmills face is that they spin too fast, all of them have brakes of some form or another. The few small blades are light and strong, they are also cheap to produce.