Project Status - Ongoing
- Start Date: January 2022
- End Date: December 2024
- Growing Places Fund allocation: £1,845,133
- Awarded to: Holme Mineral Processing Ltd.
Project Summary:
Availability of substations and grid connections are a major hurdle in the UK’s shift to renewable energy and net zero emissions. Holme Mineral Processing Ltd successfully secured this £1.8 million loan to install a renewable energy grid connection and cable infrastructure works between East Stoke and Wareham - the first of its kind in the Dorset and rare in the UK.
By establishing a joint electricity grid connection, renewable energy generated by large scale solar and wind generation at the Holme Estate will feed the national grid via a Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) substation in Wareham to local supply homes and businesses.
Grid connections such as these are a crucial link for renewable energy supplies to contribute local energy networks.
Electricity generated from renewable energy sources at the East Stoke site has the potential to supply up to 80% of the Purbeck region’s domestic electrical energy needs. That includes Wareham, Swanage, Bere Regis, Corfe Castle, and all places in between.
The loan will fund the build and electrical design of a new substation at the Stokeford Farm site, as well as the installation of a 6km long, high-capacity (30 mega-watt) cable under the riverbed near Wareham to connect to the existing SSE substation.
Works are expected to take place over the upcoming spring and summer months and be completed by September 2022.
Expected outcomes:
- Creation of two jobs (FY 2022/23)
- Two joint ventures created
- 1 x high voltage (33kV/30MW) grid connection to allow renewable energy to be exported to the grid by 2022
- Construction, and export, of renewable electricity sources:
- Solar farm = 18MW x 25 years x 13% CF x 8760 hrs p.a. measured through metering
- Wind farm = 9.2MW x 22 years x 27% CF x 8760 hrs p.a. measured through metering.
Discover Dorset LEP’s ambitions to tackle climate change for the county to be net zero by 2050 on our net zero webpage.
