Renewable energy project developer EDF power solutions UK and Ireland has appointed METLEN Energy & Metals, headquartered in Greece, to complete the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works for its 400MW Longfield solar PV farm in Britain.
METLEN will be required to carry out site surveys, purchase and supply of materials and all testing and commissioning work, with the exception of grid connection work. The company will begin construction in early 2027 and plans to complete work in 2030.
With this award, METLEN has more than 95 projects in its portfolio of completed and under-construction solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) projects in the UK; the cumulative capacity of its solar projects exceeds 2.3 GW, while the capacity of its battery projects exceeds 1.3 GWh.
“We are delighted to be working with METLEN Energy & Metals on the Longfield solar farm project,” said Matthew Boulton, director of solar, storage and private wire at EDF power solutions UK. “This is an important step forward towards the delivery of our first DCO (Development Consent Order) project.”
The Longfield project received a Contract For Difference (CfD) in the sixth round of the UK auction. which was held earlier this year and allocated 4.5 GW of capacity for solar projectsthe most for the technology since the start of the CfD scheme in 2014. EDF has also entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Transport for London to sell some of the power generated at the project.
Securing a DCO is a prerequisite for completing a Nationally Important Infrastructure Project (NSIP), which includes all solar projects with a capacity greater than 50 MW. The Labor government has made the approval of such projects a priority. with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband approving projects such as the 500MW Tillbridge Solar project earlier this year.
Only this week, the Planning Inspectorate accepted an NSIP application for the 500 MW The Droves solar project in East Anglia. Although EDF’s latest project has a slightly smaller capacity than these projects, it will also be larger than the 373MW solar plus storage project at Cleve Hill, which started in July and is currently the largest operational solar PV project in the country.
