One of the biggest farm roof mounted solar photovoltaic panel installations has recently been erected on a Hertfordshire farm. Rand Brothers have in excess of 9,000 acres of arable land as well as a grain depot that is utilised as a centre for drying and storage. The work has been completed by Infinite Energy that specialises in commercial solar panel schemes.
Solar farms are being installed on an ever increasing basis
(image credit: mcmees24)
Rand Brothers operate five sheds for drying grain that are utilised by local grain dealers and farmers. They are capable of holding anything up to 120,000 tonnes of grain and utilise a substantial amount of electricity throughout the year to dry the grain.
Their electricity bill had been increasingly significantly and they were also having to use diesel generators to provide additional power as there was insufficient electricity being produced by conventional means. This further added to the farm’s power costs.
Rand Brothers felt that it was a prudent course of action to have solar panels installed on their roofs that cover an area of about 4 acres. It was felt that solar power provided the best solution as the supply and demand of solar powered electricity was closely matched during the summer period.
The system providing 526kWp of solar panels was put in prior to the Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC’s) was reduced from 2 to 1.7. They will be capable of providing approaching 470,000 kWh of energy every year plus carbon emissions of 234 tonnes of CO2 will be removed from the atmosphere. Infinite Energy estimate that the Return on Investment (ROI) to be in the region of 16% to 24% and payback taking less than 5 years.
It is pleasing to hear that agricultural premises are being used in this way on an increasing basis. We shall continue to keep you up dated about interesting solar panel installations like this one and would welcome comments from anyone with information about similar schemes.
