Insight into agri-solar farm dealings & developments

[Mr Gus]

I've resisted putting a thread like this here / st elsewhere in the past due to hardly any of us being farmers

But big projects rely on dealing with landowners...

It is a link heavy post, but hopefully for broader renewables context you'll understand why, farming regs are not simple, the complexity of paperwork has sent many farmers down quitters road, the massive fossil fuels damage driving change in all other fields, diversification (dealing with farming outsiders) a possible way of eking out extra income versus flogging land off. poor outdated energy supply in areas now demanding massive installs of renewables, the knock on effect of dno space in the system & a reluctance to upgrade etc..

That & big scale solar wasn't as settled as it is now with companies / investment groups looking for solar acreage, & more recently battery storage which contractually throws up more work as to contracts, site clean up, bonds, payments (landowner, versus company with batteries on standby etc) a world which is really relevant to farmers who may take land out of production losing agricultural subsidies (which are ever changing as is)

And whilst it is merely going to be a link to another forums thread it will no doubt be food for thought for many on here already dealing with the machinations of the DNO & the like.

Land for ripple projects one & two differ greatly to project 3 (for example) with land remaining useable around track implementation & access compared to how ripple moves forward on project 3 which they don't feel like sharing the journey, location, trials & tribulations reaching to the project build announcements to further understanding (& therefore the real project timeline) from the ground up & the grind that is needed.

Investors (be it ripple or otherwise) demand a certain amount of information, however ripple picks & chooses information put out to the chomping at the bit investors who are quite within their right to ask away, (don't think they thought out what a forum full of investors would actually entail)

So the link is a starter for ten to a very much online community, of which there are multiples around, as well as the obvious facebook private chat groups.. or simply still old school more or less lone operators, I remember the situation well, before mobile phones, before facebook etc.

A key word like "Solar" will throw up a bunch of threads talking about contracts, payments, when payments start etc, rental from a few years back to contracts being wrangled, knock on effects, site clear up, site options ..late payments, ransom strips, locking the gates etc.

Overall quite insightful for interested members here considering the long view often taken here.
(if you look you may find w/t contract discussions too)

The threads are all from one forum, so you don't have to jump all over, & cover a variety of "by association" ..but all follow the basics of renewables projects on farmers lands, (the buisnesses approaching farmers view being more tick box exercises, & not necessarily lining up with passing land on through generations, ie how you mould your farm with generational foresight / 100 year planning.

NB 1st thread is not solar, but a good example of vexation with the likes of defra's Janet Hughes, i've purposely started it at the latest page so yo get an idea of how it devolves.. prior to you skimming from page one (of 113 currently)
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php ... st-8651945

Thread 2 is BESS reinstatement bond from march 2023 (so very current) covering various aspects throughout a battery solar renewables projects life.
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php ... nd.386206/

A forum member "mr noo" based cirencester way has more long term experience of renewables on their land so pretty insightful, if you wish to.explore associated threads he is a good start point, maybe.

Interestingly we look at a 25+ year lifespan cycle, land rental / contracts with renewables firms are seeking 40+ years so maybe we need to cast our nets further in terms of site lifespan.

rental per acre? ..well that's like the old question for solar & wind, where are you & how much land with what orientation, so all the juggling we are familiar with here on a different scale.

Also, you may be able to glean background detail as to new locations as they go up.. based on county, land type, lay out etc.. (nowty)

frequency of payments, equity in solar farms etc, late payments & locking the gates..

An interesting " more than a little p155ed off" thread pertaining to landowner (farmer) having to latterly jump.through hoops to.cut the grass around / amongst land he's leased for a pre-existing solar farm, ...then not cut the grass (as it turns out)

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php ... ar.385781/

solar land farm value
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php ... ue.380399/

Battery storage land deal thread
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php ... es.361533/

infrastructure problems s/east
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php ... ms.374701/

Overall though just dive into their renewables section
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php ... le-energy/

Gus

[renewablejohn]

You may find the odd reference to me in the TFF threads as a farmer but with a bias towards renewables I have been there for quite a while. Unfortunately with the cuurent government policies earning a living only from farming is virtually impossible. The general public have no idea how precarious our food chain is. If you think the shortage of tomato or cucumber earlier in the year was due to bad weather in Spain and Morroco then your more gullible then you realise. There is a mass cull of farmers being carried out by Defra so do not be surprised to find further food shortages in the future as the amount of imported food increases in the future.

[Mr Gus]

You are damn right Renewable John, I'm from a farming family, but no longer on the farm (a massive chunk of life gone) we public are being patted on the head as per contracts to mates in covid, "don't involve the proles it's above their station" attitude, ..make coin, "get honours" make more coin circuit of "career"

WHen cabbages are £2.80 in france (price scrutinised every few days by supermarkets apparantly) & our farmers are begging for a penny on the margin here & there, stuck into maybe a 90 day payment for goods cycle & a cabbage fixed price for a year? at 89p to customers the future is bleak.

Yet surge pricing for energy is more & more commonly accepted as coming into being regardless of whether consumers can afford it or not, surge pricing really doesn't reflect much in terms of physical food (unless maybe bought on amazon, cooked up by an algorithm.