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Plans underway for first solar farm to power homes and begin decarbonisation of electricity on Isle of Man

Proposals for the first solar farm to provide affordable green energy to residents and businesses on the Isle of Man and begin the decarbonisation of electricity generation on the Island launches today (20 Oct).

The plans for the Billown Solar Farm in Malew, near Castletown are being put forward by Peel Cubico Renewables (PCR) and support the Isle of Man Government to realise its Climate Change Plan and its commitment for the electricity sector to be 100% green by 2030.

The plans would help to provide long-term stability and independence for the Isle of Man's energy supply with less reliance on and exposure to volatile oil and gas prices.

It would also generate enough power to meet more than 5% of the Isle of Man's current electricity demand.

Island residents are being asked for their views on the new facility which would be built on 84 acres of agricultural land to the west of Malew Road (A3) and south of Douglas Road (A7) with a capacity around 26MW - enough to power up to 7,700 homes per year, almost 20% of homes on the Island.

An onsite substation is included in the plans which would connect to a nearby grid network. A battery storage facility would also store electricity generated during periods of low demand and re-distribute it to the grid when demand is high, or the network is down.

The project represents an investment of around £30m across the 40-year anticipated life of the project, at no cost to the public finances.

It would offset at least 11,000 tonnes of carbon - the equivalent of approximately 6,500 fewer car journeys per year.

PCR is a joint venture formed a year ago between natural resources and energy business Peel NRE (part of Peel L&P) and Cubico Sustainable Investments, one of the world's largest privately-owned renewable energy companies.

Stephen Snowdon, Planning & Development Manager at Peel Cubico Renewables said:

"Our vision for this solar farm supports both the Isle of Man's response to climate change and the Government's ambitions for renewable energy projects to help secure a bright economic future for the Island.

"We also recognise the cost-of-living crisis facing Island consumers and believe that the Billown solar scheme will offer a fantastic opportunity for stable, low-cost green energy to be made available to all Island residents and businesses.

"The development could be operational by 2024 and is a no-regrets hedge against future price volatility for the Island as well as a huge opportunity for the Island to take control over its long-term energy needs by exploiting its own abundant indigenous and renewable energy resources for benefit of Manx consumers.

"With energy security at the forefront of people's minds, we are looking forward to engaging with the local community over the coming weeks as we discuss our proposals in more detail and will also look to set up a community benefit fund to support local projects."

Billown Solar Farm
Thank you for taking the time to look at our plan for a solar farm on the Isle of Man. This website will help you understand not just what is being proposed, but the context of the project.

We would love to hear the thoughts of people from the local area. We are still refining the design and your suggestions on how to improve the scheme are very much welcome.

Sustainable Energy - IOM Net Zero Targets
The situation today is that the Isle of Man generates its electricity almost exclusively using fossil fuels, with less than 1% of on Island generated electricity coming from a green, renewable source.

The main power station at Pulrose uses gas, whilst other power stations have liquid fuels like diesel. The Government has recognised this must change, and we agree.

We see the Island getting most, if not all, of its power from low carbon, renewable sources generating on the Island with inter-connectors providing balancing and backup.

Our plan for a solar farm at Billown will be a start on this journey.

Energy Security & Resilience
The energy price increases will be on many people's minds. Had the Isle of Man Government not stepped in, prices would have gone up already quite sharply, with possible future rises next year.

By generating electricity locally our project will go some small way to providing additional energy security. It will lower the Island's reliance on imported gas and start to protect people from future price shocks in response to global events beyond their control.

Our Vision
The Manx Government recently released a draft Climate Action Plan, which amongst other things, sets a target to generate 20MW of renewable electricity by 2026. That's only three and a bit years away.

Our vision is to help the Government to begin its transition to net zero and kick start a renewable energy sector on the Island. Our plan would make a significant contribution towards meeting this target and would be the first grid scale scheme built by the private sector, intended to feed into the Island's distribution grid.

We chose this site as it's very well suited to solar energy, with south facing slopes. It's removed from nearby towns and villages, so it won't have a big impact on people's outlook. It's also really close to a point of connection into the Island's power network, with high-voltage overhead lines running through the site and the Castletown substation less than half a kilometre away.

Site Environment & Neighbours
The land on which the solar array is proposed has provided grazing for cattle and there have been some crops grown, but it is not the best and most versatile agricultural land on the Island.

Nevertheless, Peel Cubico has a standing commitment to improve the biodiversity at any site we wish to develop, which means looking at how we can help the local flora and fauna to flourish.

This can be done by bolstering the existing areas of tree planting and hedges, changing ground flora so it's more insect friendly, or enhancing habitats nearby that might be connected to the site by features such as a water course.

Creating a Community
We want to make a positive contribution to the communities where we choose to develop. We want to help them be resilient, to grow and to thrive. We help this by creating a fund for local groups and organisations to apply to.

It will be run by community members and operate with very few restrictions. On our other projects, these funds have been used for improvements to local schools, public spaces, leisure routes, scout groups, wildlife areas, a whole host of community reasons.

This website is to be used as a consultation tool only and not for architectural or design purposes. Buildings, sites and features are represented as approximations of their true dimensions and the map does not account for terrain.

The data within the model is derived from a variety of open data sources and we thank the organisations attributed below for its provision.

Data Source	License
OS Open Data	Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right .
OpenStreetMap Contributors	Contains OpenStreetMap data and derived data licensed under the Open Database Licence.
Manx Utilities Authority	Contains illustrative energy network data derived by Deetu.

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