Irish company BNRG Renewables will begin construction on a €35 million solar park in September. It will be one of the biggest of its kind in the UK.

The 20-megawatt park on 120 acres at Sycamore Farm, Old Romney, Kent, will produce enough electricity to power more than 6,600 homes in the UK for 30 years.

It will be developed by BNRG in partnership with London-based Lightsource Renewable Energy and was made possible by the granting earlier this year of a 25-year planning permission.

The solar farm, which is expected to benefit from above average sunshine, will be equipped with 82,000 solar panels with a capacity of 245 watts each.

Investors

When Sycamore Farm is built, BNRG will have completed solar park developments with a combined value of €148 million since 2008. Its developments have proved suitable for institutional investors and pension funds.

The development phase of the Sycamore Farm project was financed by BNRG. The construction funding is being provided by British group Octopus Investments and the project will be jointly constructed by BNRG and Lightsource, the UK’s largest developer of solar plants.

While BNRG's plan for the site met with some local objections, Shepway District Council's Development Control Committee voted 15 to one to support the scheme at the beginning of the year.

Projects

BNRG is based in Dublin’s Green International Financial Services Centre, although most of its solar farms are located abroad.

It was founded in 2007 by accountant Neil Holman and environmental scientist David Maguire and has projects under development in seven countries.

The company specialises in developing power plants with zero carbon emissions.

Latest results for BNRG Renewables Ltd show that its accumulated losses increased to €213,659 for the year to the end of June 2012 from €105,187 a year earlier.