What was the aim of the work?
Natural Power carried out technical due diligence to support Gresham House in acquiring the Bumpers solar farm, which was nearing the end of construction. Our scope included a detailed site inspection to show the construction contractor had fulfilled their obligations and the provisional acceptance certificate could be signed.
What was the outcome?
Two days before the scheduled site inspection at Bumpers, the UK government announced strict Covid-19 lockdown measures, and we could no longer carry out a physical site inspection. To avoid delaying provisional acceptance and allow Gresham House to complete its acquisition of the solar farm, we performed our inspection virtually. This enabled our client to feel assured about the quality and completeness of the installation, and successfully close the transaction within the target timescales.
What did Natural Power do to get this result?
As we could not visit the site in person, we compiled a snagging list based on photo and video evidence requested from the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor. We asked for a comprehensive list of photographic evidence to make sure that we could review key parts of the system installation in detail. High-resolution video and images are essential to be able to verify small but crucial details such as torque marks on bolts and plating on the inverters and switchgear. Throughout the review process, we kept in close contact with the EPC contractor to make sure we obtained all relevant evidence, could verify measurements that we would typically make on-site (e.g. module and pyranometer tilt, module height above ground, cable bend radius), and gained a representative view of the site.
Following several rounds of review, we were able to confirm that all snagging items had been closed out by the EPC contractor and the site could be handed over to our client.
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