THE future is looking bright for solar power company Push Energy.

What started as a throwaway comment three years ago, has blossomed into a succession of solar farms across East Anglia.

Stuart Bradshaw, chief executive of Stanway-based Push Energy, and director Tom Duke initially had their sights set on a couple of projects.

Mr Bradshaw, who grew up on a farm in Fordham and attended Colchester Royal Grammar School, said: “I remember saying in July 2012 it would be amazing to get 100 megawatts of planning applications.

“It was sort of a throwaway comment, but we kept going.”

In fact, Push Energy has installed 142MW of solar farms since March 2013.

These sites are producing power for 27,800 homes in the area, saving more than 55,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

The six completed projects include three sites in Essex – Langham, Gosfield and Langenhoe – and were connected to the electrical grid between September 5 2014 and March 20 this year.

Mr Bradshaw, 35, who studied agricultural economics at Reading University, said: “I thought there was an opportunity in this.

“I am certainly not an eco warrior, but I do think we need to decarbonise.

“A lot of the carbon in fossil fuels should live in the ground, we don’t need to be so lazy.

“I felt it had quite a lot of scope in the area. I have quite a good physics brain and it isn’t that complicated.”

Mr Bradshaw approached Mr Duke about using some of his land to start a solar project.

The pair met while training in accountancy and, after finishing university, became business partners.

Push’s first solar farm was at Wisbridge in Hertfordshire.

It has 36,000 solar panels over a 40-acre field and generates power for 2,800 homes.

Push has planning permission for ten more solar farms.

On average, it takes ten to 12 weeks to construct a Push Energy solar farm. It is one of just a few firms in the country that builds the farms as well as runs them.

The first year of business was spent putting together a portfolio of more sites and getting planning permission for the first site.

The following year involved raising capital to develop the projects by asking private investors to lend the company money, primarily to pay deposits for the grid connection costs.

Push then needed investment to apply for planning permission, and raised £750,000 through the LowCarbon Innovation Fund.

That was matched by more money from private investors.

Mr Bradshaw said the process of building a solar farm involves three stages.

It first has to be given the right to connect to the National Grid at 33,000 vaults, then a willing land owner needs to be found to host a solar project and, finally, planning permission is needed.

It is the final hurdle that Mr Bradshaw said is always the toughest.

He said: “Solar is quite an efficient use of land for the number of houses it serves.

“One problem we’ve had is people feeling we shouldn’t take land for food out of production.

“But solar uses 0.1 per cent to 0.2 per cent of arable land. Golf courses use more than 2 per cent.

“Where possible, wehave always tried to use sites where people couldn’t see the project from a house.”

Land owners benefit by renting out often poorer quality land to host the solar site.

This land then attracts rents in excess of the agricultural return, while at the same time providing a haven for wildlife.

With returns from traditional farming currently so poor, Mr Bradshaw said such diversification is ever more important.

But he said it was not only the investors who benefited: “Within 18 months we had started to put together a team of six to sevenpeople.

That team grew quickly and we now have about 30, all of those are from the Colchester area.”

He added: “Solar farms are good for the economy because we have created a local business from renewable energy and solar projects.”

With the East Anglian grid capacity virtually full, Push Energy found it needed to do something else in addition to building solar farms.

So, it has branched out into operations and maintenance, winning contracts for six solar farms.

It is also looking at other opportunities, such as solar panels on roofs and wood chip heating schemes. The company is also interested in working with new developers and landowners who have, or are seeking, planning permission to build solar farms.