Livos Energy

[SRE]

Does anyone have any intel on these guys? One of our customers has a farm adjacent to the land they're proposing to put a 13mw solar farm on. While not opposed in principle, there seems to be a great degree of uncertainty about who will carry out maintenance of ditches and hedges over the 25 year period. There seems to be strong indications that Livos will merely project manage the job and then sell on.

So, is this normal, it's a massive solar park although I don't know if they're working on the principle that planners may force them to reduce the figures so they're over estimating in the first place.

It appears that we have about 5 or 6 of these planned up here already, waiting to see if the first one gets planning permission. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Gavin A]

drainage ditches are the landowners responsibility, I doubt they'll actually own the land itself, therefore it's up to the land owner to maintain the land and ditches.

Landowner could make it a condition of the rental agreement that the solar farm owners take on that responsibility, or could do it themselves out of the rental income, but ultimately the responsibility lies with the landowner.

http://www.cumbriahighways.co.uk/documents/NFU.pdf

 

[SRE]

drainage ditches are the landowners responsibility, I doubt they'll actually own the land itself, therefore it's up to the land owner to maintain the land and ditches.

Landowner could make it a condition of the rental agreement that the solar farm owners take on that responsibility, or could do it themselves out of the rental income, but ultimately the responsibility lies with the landowner.

http://www.cumbriahighways.co.uk/documents/NFU.pdf

Thanks Gavin I think it's the drainage/hedges on the land itself where the panels are that he's concerned about rather than the highway and the access to do this when the panels are in place.


As you say I expect the land will be leased but there's a lot of flooding in this particular area and drainage of the fields is key to our farmer being able to graze his cattle. His grass has only just recovered from 2 years ago when it was standing in water for so long it had damaged the roots. He ended up selling his cattle off because he didn't have enough grass for the winter for them. I assume that's where his worry is coming from.

 

[TedM]

Planning Officer should be contacted to see if a Section 106 agreement to cover this could be included/enforced.

 

[SRE]

Planning Officer should be contacted to see if a Section 106 agreement to cover this could be included/enforced.

Good idea - I'd completely forgotten about section 106. Thanks Ted.

Does anyone have any experience with this size solar park? It would be good to have some feedback.

 

[The Solar King]

If it isn't already well down the road of planning etc, it may never happen due to changes for systems over 5MW concerning ROs and CfDs. The grace periods offered would not allow this to happen. The developer would have to be able to cope with the risks of the proposed CfD auctions. The consultation has only just closed, but the Government looks set to continue with it's idiocy regardless of the outcome which will make the consequent risks too great.

All to do with gas. You are probably unaware of the stuff sneaked through the House of Lords to provide further subsidies going forward to support gas fired power stations not generating......

 

[SRE]

If it isn't already well down the road of planning etc, it may never happen due to changes for systems over 5MW concerning ROs and CfDs. The grace periods offered would not allow this to happen. The developer would have to be able to cope with the risks of the proposed CfD auctions. The consultation has only just closed, but the Government looks set to continue with it's idiocy regardless of the outcome which will make the consequent risks too great.

All to do with gas. You are probably unaware of the stuff sneaked through the House of Lords to provide further subsidies going forward to support gas fired power stations not generating......

To be honest it's all a bit weird. No planning application submitted yet - due in 5 weeks time. I remembered seeing something recently about big solar farms a few weeks ago and cuts but didn't take much notice because it doesn't involve us. We put a couple of 4 kwp systems in 3 years ago and the infrastructure was creaking with that so there's got to be major upgrades. There was a public consultation yesterday with very sketchy details. It was notable that they didn't actually explain how many panels it would be - or the sheer scale of it.

 

[Gavin A]

best bet would be for the farmer to go directly to the park owners, and request to be given the contract to maintain the ditches on the site. That way he can get paid for the work, and guarantee that it will be done to his satisfaction, or he can sub contract the work to his ditch cleaners etc.

If he explains that he intends to make a statutory objection unless the issue of drains maintenance is fully resolved to his satisfaction, they'd be nuts not to agree to this arrangement.

 

[Gavin A]

he could also probably request they install soakaways and additional drainage while they have the kit on site to do it / have trenches dug for cabling etc. that'd be win win, and if he makes clear why he's concerned it should really flag this up for the project owners as well who will want to reduce flood risk as far as possible.