Worthy Farm, the site of the Glastonbury Festival will soon have the UK’s largest private solar electricity system.
Michael Eavis will install 1,500 square metres of solar panels that will be capable of producing enough electricity to power 40 homes.
The solar cells will installed on the roofs of the barns which house the farm’s dairy cows.
Michael told the Press: “This is going to be a fantastic project and we are very excited about starting work on it.
“We are always thinking about how we can improve the site and make the Festival and the farm greener.
“We have had renewable energy at the Festival since 1979, and we have tried to do more and more each year. This is going to be a flagship project which will make a huge difference to our carbon footprint not just during the festival but throughout the whole year.”
When they are operating at peak capacity, the panels will generate 200KW of power. The CIS tower in Manchester is the only site in the UK that is larger, with a peak output of 380KW.
Most of the power from the solar panels will be used on the farm to run equipment such as milking pumps.
The remainder will be exported to the National Grid.
The Government’s new payments for green electricity “Clean Energy Cashback” scheme means that Worthy Farm will earn 29 pence per unit of electricity it generates, and generate a total of about £60,000 worth of energy a year.
It is expected that the system will pay for itself in eight or nine years, after which the money it makes will be extra income for the farm.
By generating electricity with no harmful emissions, the system will save about 100 tonnes of CO2 a year – the annual carbon footprint of 10 people in the UK.
A team of 10 workers will start installing the solar panels from August 1, providing planning permission is granted and site surveys confirm that the roofing on the barns is strong enough to hold the panels.
