The headline that Scottish Power is going to build solar panels beside its windfarms should come as no surprise. We have already seen many developers relooking at their existing sites to maximise the generation potential and take full advantage of the grid connection that they have obtained.  So solar and storage and now even hydrogen are not off the table.

A few things to think about from the legal side on co- location though.

- Does your lease allow you to put solar on the site - Does it actually cover the land on which the panels are going to be deployed?

- Do you need to think about proper grid sharing arrangements?  Will there ever be any intention to sell off or separate the entities holding the solar and or the wind project - if so this needs to be thought about

- Planning - of course

- How might it affect repowering of the wind project in years to come?

- If the wind project has been financed what is the funder attitude to site development and what effect may installing the solar have on the wind operations?

- Community ownership expectations

- Does your wind power purchase agreement contain anything which prohibits further generation on site without permission?

All of these can in most cases, be dealt with and managed and will not prevent co-location projects but they are worth considering at the outset.

We have helped developers with quite a few of these so if you would like to know more get in touch.  Ross.fairley@burges-salmon.com