We started construction, on 21st September, of Gwrhyd Solar Farm (Haul y Gwrhyd CIC), a 2.6 MWp ground mount solar farm and 0.9 MW AC/5MWh battery.
After a considerable amount of time spent on planning, permissions, appointments etc etc, it is great to have feet and machines on the ground.
The existing wind farm is connected to the local distribution network and can export up to 4.7 MW of electricity at any time. Due to the variable nature of the wind, the amount of electricity generated by the wind farm fluctuates and therefore there have been periods when there is spare capacity available within our grid connection, especially in the summer.
Photo: Mike Harrison
Haul y Gwrhyd will share the grid connection of our 2-turbine, wind farm, making it a ‘tribrid’ (three technology) project, maximising the efficiency of our grid connection and the productivity of the site. Ours is one of the first tribrid schemes in Wales. All surplus will be continue to support our community projects such as Hwb y Gors, our energy advice team and community transport service.
Local primary school Ysgol y Bedol made a well-timed visit a couple of weeks ago to see the existing turbines in action and tour the site, making some expert estimates of how many solar panels we will be installing in the adjacent field.
We have commissioned our film maker Mike Harrison to document the construction process so will be sharing films and updates over the course of the project here, on our socials and via newsletters.
Photo: Mike Harrison