The number of solar farms being installed continues to increase here in the UK as the country strives to achieve its renewable energy targets.
A farm in Cornwall that has llamas and sheep will soon be benefiting from solar panels
(image credit: Marie Hale)
A farm that keeps sheep and llama in the Truro area in beautiful Cornwall is going to be benefiting once a large solar panel system is installed. Planning permission has recently been granted by the council following an application by British Solar Renewables.
Once fully completed the solar farm will benefit from around 45,000 solar panels with an output of 11MW. This amount of energy would be sufficient to provide electricity for 3,125 homes in the locality.
The solar panels are to be spread across 24 hectares of the farmland of Tom Tripp but he will still be able to let his sheep graze on the site that he is undoubtedly pleased about. Mr Tripp has had sheep on the farm for 25 years and intends to continue with this for another 25 years. The rental income from the solar panel farm will provide welcome additional financial support to the farm helping with the stability of the farming business for the foreseeable future. It will also allow him to expand the llama side of the business that they are very interested in doing.
Angus Macdonald who is the managing director of British Solar Renewables referred to the fact that the 60 acre site that the solar panels are to be installed on was selected due to where it was located as it provided a high level of sun irradiation. Another benefit was that the solar panels would not be too intrusive from a visual point of view. The company intend to have planted a number of different species of trees and hedge grow that will no doubt assist in this respect.
As a general observation, whilst there are renewable energy targets to be met, it is important that solar panel farm developments are dealt with taking into account the views of all parties.
