Solar Farm: Green energy

Solar farm: clean energy

Solar farms are becoming ever more prevalent in the UK, with the UK government estimating 22,000 MW of installed capacity by 2020.  This is enough to power 4 million homes. In fact many families are installing solar panels on their house roofs. Of the 650,000 solar installations in the UK, photovoletiec (PV) cells generate power on one in 50 UK homes.

Some argue that a solar farm can “[change] the appearance and character of the landscape”, though according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), there is no evidence that solar farms displacing agricultural production is a concern at the current scale of deployment and the RSPB strongly supports the deployment of solar arrays on roofs.

The UK’s largest solar farm opened in December 2014.  It is located at East Hanney near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The farm is built on low-grade land, meaning the soil has a middle ranking for quality of soil. Green, solar farm energy does not come at the cost of agriculture – sheep graze on the land, sharing it with the solar panels. A two metre high hedge around the farm obscures it from view at ground level.

Most solar farm  development in England has been in the South West, where solar potential is highest. The post photograph shows a Wiltshire solar farm shot from a helicopter operated by Helitours. They offer Cotwolds helicopter tours – a way to see Wiltshire from a different angle.

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