Our Proposals
The Eco-Hub is all-encompassing and sustainable.
It will produce electricity to power homes, businesses and vehicles while helping to manage the National Grid through the provision of battery storage.
The Eco-Hub includes:
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Public electric vehicle station with around 25 charging points.
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Battery storage to help the National Grid manage its network.
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Solar panels that will generate electricity at source in Kirby, powering electric vehicle chargers and homes.
The EV charging station is an innovative combination of technologies with only a few other comparable such examples in the country.
Fact: During a full year, the proposed solar project would produce electricity equivalent to the demand of around 6,500 average UK homes.[1] That’s more than three times the number of homes in Kirby Cross and Kirby-le-Soken, combined.
These chargers would allow all types of EVs to charge at the Eco-Hub.
Public rest facilities including a small café/shop and seating/lounge area.
Inclusion of around 50 car parking spaces (for EVs as well as non- EVs, to help reduce congestion and traffic on the Halstead Road during peak school drop-off and pick-up times.
The western part of the site would comprise:
The electric vehicle charging station:
Construction of a new access off the Halstead Road by the Kirby Playing Fields.
Around six ultra-rapid (up to 350kW), six rapid (43-100kW) charging points and 13 “fast” while further chargers would be added over time, to meet demand.
The battery storage:
Up to six containers located adjacent to the electric vehicle charging
station within a fenced compound for safety and security, and to screen
the containers from view.
Associated access and hard standing within perimeter fencing and CCTV.
Electricity generated by the solar farm would be stored in the proposed batteries
within the containers and energy released as and when required to the local
electricity grid and/or the electric vehicle charging station.
The batteries proposed would increase the operational flexibility of the proposed
solar farm, facilitate EV charging and potentially provide services to help with the
efficient operation of the local electricity system.
The grid connection:
Various buildings (all of single storey height) and associated electrical equipment and infrastructure necessary for the operation of the solar farm, including a distribution network operator switching station building, client switching station building and a storage unit.
The solar farm would be located in the larger, eastern part of the site and would comprise:
Photovoltaic modules installed on a simple metal framework mounted on piles driven into the ground, avoiding the need for substantive foundations.
Each would have an overall height of up to 2.8m depending on existing ground levels which would be unaltered.
An improved access via an existing field entrance from the Halstead Road.
A number of inverter/transformers located across the site with there likely being at least one in each of the four fields.
Fencing and a CCTV system (looking inwards) within the site boundary would be installed around the site’s perimeter while access tracks will be constructed within the site.
[1] The UK average for solar photovoltaic project capacity factors in 2020 was 11.2% (Source: 2021 Digest of UK Energy Statistics, BEIS, table 6.5). 25MWp (the project’s assumed capacity) x 1,000 (converting from MW to kW) x 8,760 (hours in a year) x 11.2% (assumed capacity factor) = 24.5m kWh, to one decimal place. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, “Energy Consumption in the UK” Table C9, 22 October 2020, average, temperature-corrected domestic consumption in 2019 @ 3,772 kWh. 24.5m kWh divided by 3,772 kWh = 6,495 homes.