A Worcestershire firm has clinched a £1.2 million deal to install the UK’s largest solar power plant, which is set to eclipse the Glastonbury Festival founder’s claim to the title.
Going Solar fought off fierce competition from around the country to win the contract to fit around 2,200 photovoltaic panels on a series of warehouse roofs in Ipswich spanning roughly the size of a football pitch.
When complete, the installation could generate up to 500kW, enough to supply more than 100 homes with power.
That puts it at twice the size of the power plant announced last year by Glastonbury Festival’s Michael Eavis, which at 200 kW was touted as the biggest private array of photovoltaic panels in the country.
Mr Eavis fitted the panels on the roof of his cow shed and is using the energy to power his home, Worthy Farm, and is feeding the remainder into the National Grid.
Charles Houston, who runs the 12-strong firm Going Solar alongside Andy Perkins, said he was confident that the Ipswich project would be the biggest in the country when it is completed, although there are plans in the pipeline for larger arrays elsewhere in the future.
He said: “The roof is the surface of a warehouse and they will use the power generated during the daylight hours.
“What they don’t use will go back into the grid.
“There’s the potential for more than 100 average-sized dwellings to be powered with the energy generated from the roof.”
Mr Houston said the Neen Sollars-based firm had seen a surge in demand for photovoltaics since changes in legislation around small-scale renewable energy generation were brought in last year.
The feed-in tariff allows home-owners and businesses with roof space to sell their energy to the National Grid at a subsidised rate, increasing the attraction of investing in renewables.
Mr Houston said: “The change brought in by the previous government in April 2010 has created an income stream from power generated through renewables.
“We’ve seen demand particularly from residential customers who have been very quick in coming forward because it’s tax-free.
“For customers with £14,000 or £15,000 and a good south-facing roof, it’s a 25-year income stream which starts at 10 or 11 per cent, is tax-free and index-linked to RPI inflation.
“A lot of people are seeing it as a pension, and also we have a lot of interest from farmers and other commercial operators with large roofs.
“The main issue is finding the finance for paying for it as it’s difficult to get hold of.
“The banks are not lending – but that is changing,” he said.
Besides the Ipswich project, Going Solar has recently completed a range of projects around the UK including a solar thermal panel installation for heating an indoor swimming pool at Abberley Hall School, near Worcester.
It is expected to reduce energy bills by around £10,000 a year.
