PACE

Pathfinder Clean Energy UK submits 49MW co-located solar and energy storage project into planning

Pathfinder Clean Energy (PACE), a UK-headquartered international developer of utility scale solar and battery storage projects, has submitted its latest co-located project with a capacity of 49.9MW of solar and an additional 30MW of battery storage.

The proposed ground-mounted scheme, known as Tydd Solar is located in Lincolnshire. It will generate enough power for around 22,300 homes each year, or the CO2 emissions equivalent of removing over 10,000 passenger vehicles from the road. Beyond its contribution to fighting climate change, Tydd Solar will also help reverse biodiversity and habitat loss by providing a Biodiversity Net Gain gain in excess of the 10% that is mandated for new developments. The design of the site allows for continued grazing, further reducing its impact on agricultural land. 

Rob Denman, Managing Director at PACE said, “We are delighted that our latest co-located project - Tydd Solar and ESS - has been submitted into planning. We are committed to developing and constructing flexible clean energy generation which the UK and the wider international market requires. Projects such as Tydd help the UK meet its legally-binding net-zero goals, but also improve energy security and help reduce energy bills at a time when costs are at the front of everyone’s mind. We’ve worked hard to identify a site that is both deliverable and developable per the government’s renewable energy policies and Tydd very clearly meets those criteria’.

‘With PACE Group’s UK and international teams and also our solar and energy storage pipelines increasing then 2024 has started strongly and is all set to continue this way’.

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by PACE

Pathfinder Clean Energy commences development for Middle Road Solar - a 49MW solar farm, co-located with BESS in Fenland, Cambridgeshire, UK

Pathfinder Clean Energy (PACE), a UK-headquartered international developer of utility scale solar and battery storage projects, has commenced the development and EIA screening for its latest project - Middle Road Solar - a 49MW solar project co-located with battery energy storage near Whittlesey.

The proposed ground-mounted scheme, known as Middle Road Solar, would generate enough power for nearly 24,000 homes each year or the CO2 emissions equivalent of removing over 13,000 passenger vehicles from the road. The proposals also include 30MW of battery energy storage.

Rob Denman, Managing Director at PACE said, “This project will build on PACE’s recent successes, including the 50MW Grange Solar Farm approved in October. Middle Road will supply clean renewable energy to the local area while its batteries will ensure this energy is available when it is most needed. As with all our projects, we will be seeking significant biodiversity gains to tackle the country’s combined challenges of climate change, energy security and species decline. The full planning application is expected to be submitted in early 2024.”

by PACE

PACE UK prioritizes utility scale Solar + BESS co-location to unlock value from renewables assets

The innovation necessary to ensure the successful delivery of the energy transition presents investors with opportunities to optimise their portfolios with new asset classes capable of providing healthy returns and supporting accelerated paths to decarbonisation. 

One of the key answers to intermittent production, energy curtailment and grid limitations are Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) that can provide resilience and flexibility to energy markets. The co-location of BESS and renewable energy infrastructure, such as solar, presents a logical and innovative solution. 

Pathfinder Clean Energy (PACE), the UK-headquartered international developer of utility scale solar PV and BESS projects, is to prioritise co-location in the UK as it seeks to lead the industry in developing strong and flexible assets.

Utility scale co-location is an emerging asset class, with limited transactional data currently available, but PACE’s analysis suggests that it can provide a premium of up to 3 percentage points on the returns over and above stand-alone merchant PV assets. At the same time, exposure to merchant price risk is lower than that of stand-alone PV assets. 

“Co-location has huge potential to increase returns and reduce risk as well as providing a better asset for the UK energy market. PACE sees co-location as critical to its strategy in the UK and internationally,” said Rob Denman, managing director of PACE. “As an industry we need to innovate constantly to deliver projects that bring value to the energy markets and their transition to decarbonisation. At PACE, we’re proud to lead this activity.”

The benefits of co-location include:

• Increased resilience of income – Renewable energy brings lower cost electricity to the market, but its intermittency brings volatility. As wind and solar grows in the UK and global power mix, colocation of generation and storage assets increases resilience:
  • Reducing energy waste – during periods of curtailment, also forecast to increase with growing renewables deployment, power generated by solar panels can be diverted from grid export to the BESS, meaning less power is wasted.
  • Improving price capture (compared to a stand-alone PV system) – power generated does not need to be sold immediately, but can be stored and sold when prices are more favourable.
• Hedging price risk – Where solar PV projects are entirely dependent on absolute power values, BESS projects trade primarily off the volatility in the intra-day power markets. Co-location thus reduces price risk in 2 ways:
  • Mutual price hedging - High levels of solar PV output can depress or “cannibalise” power prices because demand for power rarely matches peaks in solar PV output. However, cannibalisation creates arbitrage opportunities for BESS, which can buy power when it is cheap and dispatch the power when prices have firmed up. Likewise, lower cannibalisation will favour solar PV at the expense of BESS. The two technologies thus provide a mutual hedge for a key price risk. 
  • Un-correlated revenues - BESS projects have access to revenues that are independent of absolute power prices, such as Dynamic Containment – the ability to manage the balance of supply and demand in real-time - and other ancillary services, the capacity market and local balancing. This means that BESS revenues are only partially correlated with solar PV revenues, providing further risk mitigation.
• Shared grid connection costs – a single connection can be used for both the PV and BESS system, which reduces the costs when compared to stand-alone assets. PACE’s modelling suggests that a stand-alone asset might use around 14% of total grid capacity over the course of a year, whereas a co-located asset, in the same location, might use around 29% of grid capacity. This is partly attributable to the BESS using the grid connection to import and export power when the solar PV is not using all of the connection capacity. In particular, power markets are at their most volatile on winter evenings when the grid connection is not used by the solar PV.

As well as improved financial returns, co-located assets help to relieve grid congestion at peak generation times by delaying power exports. This allows for more renewables to be connected without the need for investment in the grid, meaning that the Government’s net zero pledges can be met at a lower cost.

PACE has over 260 MWp of solar projects fully permitted or submitted into planning and across this portfolio is looking to co-locate over 100 MW / 200 MWh of energy storage. Over 120 MWp of solar and 90 MW / 180 MWh is targeted to commence construction in 2024.

Also read our article on clean energy, the: ‘Sunrise Investment’

by PACE