In 2009, Green Cat Renewables (GCR) was engaged to provide technical support to E-gen to help identify and develop a portfolio of 500kW FIT scale projects. A regional approach of identifying landowners who might be interested in hosting a project was followed by E-gen.
E-gen employed land agents to identify a large number of potentially interested landowners. GCR then filtered this large number of sites down to a more manageable list by assessing the sites at a high level: for predicted wind speed; planning prospects; access; proximity to dwellings and other physical constraints; buildability; grid connection potential and aviation concerns. These were combined with notes from a site visit to come up with an overall scoring for the site. Sites that scored above the target threshold were advanced to a feasibility study that considered these factors in more detail.
In parallel with this technical approach, E-gen secured a land option for the site and applied for a grid connection. Those sites that passed these tests were taken forward into full planning application and at most sites an anemometer was installed.
This process lead to 5 sites being consented and brought to a shovel ready state. At this point the sites were sold on and Green Cat Renewables provided some ongoing support as they were built out.
