Spanish construction company Isolux Corsan says it has successfully completed building the UK’s biggest photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant – accomplished in a timeline of just 10 weeks.
The company spent 40 million euros on construction of the 15 megawatt (MW) facility located in rural Cornwall, comprising of three separate plants each with a 5MW installed capacity.
A total of 22,000 crystalline solar PV panels mounted on fixed arrays were used in the project.
Large-scale solar energy projects can take many months – even years – to evolve from the drawing board to actually generating power for households, so Isolux Corsan’s 10-week build schedule is remarkable. However, as was the case with a 5MW solar farm built in just 6 weeks by another company, Isolux Corsan say they were rushing to meet the cut-off date for Britain’s latest round of reductions to solar feed-in tariff rates.
Although set for the end of the northern summer, the company ensured it would qualify for full entitlement under the solar scheme by first linking the project site to transmission lines well before construction of the solar farm began.
"With this new venture, Isolux Corsán has reaffirmed its leadership amongst the major builders of photovoltaic solar plants in the world, accumulating a total installed capacity of 290 MW already online," a statement from the company says.
Predominantly an international construction Group building roads and other publics works projects around the globe, Isolux Corsan has diversified in the solar PV sector, recently completing the 72MW Rovigo solar plant in Italy, said to be the largest of its kind in continental Europe. The Rovigo facility is capable of generating enough clean energy for 50,000 people and will avoid the emission of 41,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.
