Most of the world’s electricity supply continues to be generated from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.

However, these traditional energy sources face several challenges including price volatility, security concerns over dependence on imported oil, and environmental repercussions.

Renewable energy sources have emerged as real alternatives which address some of these concerns and governments around the world are creating policies to encourage the uptake of renewables.

Solar power has emerged as the most rapidly growing renewable source of electricity and is poised to comprise a significant portion of the world’s energy mix in the near future.

Generally, a 25 MWp solar farm can be developed in 12 to 15 months.

However, the development timeline largely depends on the local/municipal permitting and approval processes.

Construction can take an additional 10 months depending on construction timing based on seasonal considerations and the utility company’s interconnection scope.

PEAK ENERGY Asset Managers and its trusted partner O&M companies will operate and maintain the solar farm according to a PEAK ENERGY-defined framework for top quality requirements to optimize the assets and its relationship with the environment and communities.

The electricity that will be produced by the solar farm will be fed into the local electricity grid and will be physically delivered to various energy users by the utility.

The owner of an asset is responsible for the decommissioning of that asset including removing all equipment and infrastructure associated with the project.

In designing a project, decommissioning of a solar farm should always be incorporated into the business plan so that reserve accounts can be funded from the beginning of the operations.

These accounts are typically funded by project cash flows and help to ensure that funds are available to complete the decommissioning of an asset at the appropriate time.

During normal course construction or operation of a solar farm, the land should not be exposed to any hazardous materials.

PEAK ENERGY only recommends high quality panels from best-in-class manufacturers who provide minimum 25-year performance guarantees.

For a wind project to be successful, wind developers must abide by government rules, regulations, and establish a mutually beneficial relationship with the community.

Challenges such as unpredictable wind patterns, noise, operations, and geography are analyzed before designing a wind site. The wind industry continues to research and understand the challenges and advantages to ensure that wind energy is utilized to its full potential.

Environmental and conservation groups recognize that one of the largest threats to bird species is the threat of climate change and support the installation of properly-sited wind power facilities as an effort to reduce the impact of climate change on bird populations.

While wind turbines do kill individual birds, the industry has made great strides over the past decades understanding how turbines can be sited to minimize the impact on birds.

Today, other threats—such as skyscrapers, automobiles, and predators—present a greater negative impact to bird populations than modern wind facilities.

Modern electricity grids are designed to deal with minute-to-minute variation in load from customers and supply from power sources.

While it differs from grid to grid, most system operators agree that a typical grid can incorporate 10-20% wind generation without any additional operational considerations.

With wind forecasting technology improving year over year, wind production levels can be accurately predicted at 5-minute, hourly, and daily intervals.