News on Ray Valley Solar

We are delighted to report that we signed the construction contract for Ray Valley Solar ground mount solar park last month, and the project is due to be completed in September 2021.

Ray Valley Solar will generate over 18GWh of clean electricity each year, enough to power over 6,000 homes.

Ray Valley Solar

Ray Valley Solar will be a new solar park located near Bicester. Planning permission has been secured for the 95-acre site and will comprise 35,900 solar panels with battery storage also approved. Engie Fabricom will carry out the project build, and Low Carbon Limited will manage it.

Ray Valley Solar will:

The panels used at Ray Valley Solar will be bi-facial panels, which means that they have clear glass on both the sky-facing and ground-facing sides. This is a relatively new technology, enabling the panels to capture some of the reflected light that bounces up off the grass below whilst the project is in operation. Over the course of a year, this increases generation by 25% over a standard panel.

Constructing a solar park is of course a significant intervention to a landscape. Although the site is between a Ministry of Defence site and another solar park, we want to ensure that Ray Valley is an exemplar of how a solar park can be realised in this kind of context. That is also what our stakeholders told us. All 80 respondents to a survey we put out about approaching ground mount solar indicated very reassuring and overwhelmingly positive support. Many also wanted to know what exemplar land and biodiversity management around a solar park could and should look like.

Currently, the site is a large, flat open field punctuated only by a few hedges, one or two ditches and grazing sheep at times. We have a partnership with the landowner, who will continue to graze the area once construction is complete. There is 8m of space between each of the panels allowing access to open grass for sheep. The ground is about 1m from the bottom of the panels, allowing plenty of space for sheep to walk under the panels to have uninterrupted grazing across the site.

A detailed landscaping strategy is in development to ensure we are doing the utmost to maximise biodiversity in the area. We are also exploring opportunities to work with the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT).