Orta Solar News

Orta Solar (http://www.ortasolar.com), the Southern England based team that have developed one of the UK’s largest Solar Farm portfolios to date, has today announced that it is being forced to consider postponing over £180M of UK Construction projects in reaction to an EU trade levy of between 40% & 70% proposed to be added to the import price of Chinese solar products. “We’re tremendously disappointed to hear this proposed news”, declared Nick Pascoe, the business’s Managing Director, “we invest many £millions in surveying, planning, legal, financial and technical design work typically twelve months prior to constructing these projects and as of today we no longer know whether it will be economically viable to construct UK commercial scale Solar farms later in 2013 and beyond. How can we possibly continue to invest?”.

Orta Solar, the team that have developed one of the UK’s largest Solar Farm portfolios to date, has today announced that it has been awarded planning on another 5 Solar Farms in the South of the UK. “I’m thrilled for our team who have worked so hard for this success. It represents another 40MWp of UK Solar Farming in sensitively chosen locations working closely with our terrifically enthusiastic farmer partners”, declared Nick Pascoe, the business’s Managing Director. Orta’s five most recent planning awards now brings the total that the team’s members have won positive planning on to over 20 successfully planned UK Solar Farms representing nearly 150MWp, as many as any other team in the UK.

Orta Solar, managed by the team that have constructed the UK’s largest Solar PV portfolio to date, has been contacted by many farmers keen to install 50kW of Solar PV on 1/4 acre of land or a barn roof before the next Feed in Tariff (FiT) reductions on 1st July. 50kW of Solar PV on a Farm still makes strong financial sense for those that act fast costing circa £90k & paying back circa £380k over 25 yrs. But, since 1st April, there is a requirement that a ‘building’ to which a Solar PV system is attached must be independently assessed to meet Energy Performance Certificate grade D (EPCD) or above in order to claim FiTs. How does this work for farms with a mixture of grain barns, cowsheds and often workshops / offices?

Orta Solar (http://www.ortasolar.com), managed by the team that previously developed & built the UK’s largest Solar PV portfolio to date, announced today a series of new PV Operations & Maintenance contract wins. These take its total currently maintained to over 35MW. Working either for the original Engineering Procurement & Construction (EPC) company that built the installation, or directly for the solar park’s owners, the company is fast becoming the default choice for UK Solar park electrical maintenance. The company’s initial aim is that by summer 2012 it will be operating over 50MW of UK solar PV delivering 50GWh of zero carbon electricity annually.

Orta Solar (http://www.ortasolar.com) today announces that it has successfully delivered yet another Farm based 50kW Solar PV system. Including room for the electrical safety fence and boundary grasses, the system in Sussex takes up a small strip of land 15m wide and 117m long on the North edge of the client’s utility field and produces enough zero carbon electricity to cover the annual electricity consumption of the farm house and all of its outbuildings.

Orta Solar (http://www.ortasolar.com), managed by the team that developed & constructed the UK’s largest Solar PV portfolio to date, today announces that it has successfully delivered, in just 4 weeks start to finish, a 50kW Solar PV system on the roof of Willesley Warren Farm, a commercial grain barn that forms part of the 5,000 acre Middletion & Portway farms, despite it being full of over 2,000t of grain!

Orta Solar, a developer and electrical maintainer of UK solar PV power stations, announced today that it has purchased two of the very first all new 2012 Ford Rangers to arrive in the UK. Only 20 of these groundbreaking pick-up trucks had arrived in the UK when Orta took collection from Hendy Ford in Southampton yesterday. Orta Solar are the first commercial purchaser of the new Ranger in the UK. Facing the challenging task of maintaining 30MW (150,000 solar panels) of up to 33,000Volt Solar Power stations in all weathers a tough life lies ahead for these two vehicles

Orta Solar, managed by the team that developed & constructed the UK’s largest Solar PV portfolio to date, today announces that it has successfully completed the construction of a 50kW Solar PV system next to the main runway at Gatwick Airport. This is a UK first, no other UK Airport has solar power generation on site – let alone within 150 metres of the runway.

I visited your MP surgery in March this year to talk to you about the adverse impact of surprise changes to the Solar PV feed in tariff on my young Cirencester based business developing solar power stations in the UK. Those changes went ahead, the consequence being that I made redundant 40 local engineers, surveyors and planners and cancelled Solar PV projects that would have employed 500 UK construction workers within 2011.

I write to share a little research regarding 3 of your key statements to Parliament yesterday, 31^st October 2011. You used these statements as part of the rationale for reducing the Solar FiT so dramatically and hastily, hence they ought to be borne out in fact.

Dear Mr Osborne,

I write to declare astonishment that your policies appear continually ignorant of the magnitude of the business opportunity presented to UK PLC by the global necessity of delivering lower carbon industrialised economies.

Introduction
The UK Government is proposing to reduce Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) for new solar photovoltaic (PV) installations as part of their comprehensive review consultation. See www.decc.gov.uk/fits
If you install solar PV and your FiTs application is received by your FiT supplier (also known as FiT Licensee) on or after 8 December 2011, you could be affected by the proposals.

04/10/2011

“The cost of a 50kW small commercial Solar Photovoltaic system in the UK has now reached £100k to £130k. With a Feed in Tariff set at 32.9p/kWh generated, it is unlikely that there will ever be a better time for businesses to add Solar PV to their property. Fill ‘yer boots!” So says Nick Pascoe, Managing Director of Orta Solar (http://www.ortasolar.com)

27/09/2011

Orta Solar (http://www.ortasolar.com), managed by the team that have built the
UK’s largest Solar PV portfolio to date, has today launched a series of PV Operations & Maintenance packages to suit systems from 20kW to 5MW or more. What’s more they’re offering a commission of 10% of the first year fee to any installer or developer that connects their installed clients to the service.

Orta News

Orta Solar News