Solar

Solar energy is one of the most accessible and widely used renewable energy sources in the world.

Solar panels closeup

About eighty properties in the Parish have roofs with aspects suitable for solar systems of about 4 kW each.

  • A 4kW south facing array would pay for itself over its lifetime at current electricity costs and save 1 tonne of CO2 a year.

  • The economics of fitting solar panels now depends on the use of electricity in the building, being best when houses are occupied during the day.
  • The grid connection rules currently would make siting solar arrays on barns in the
  • Parish uneconomic, but this might change in the future.
  • The general feeling before the study was that we did not want to site a solar farm, i.e., a large array of ground mounted, photovoltaic panels, on good agricultural land. There is little low grade agricultural land in the Parish, but there is one small area near Lincoln Hill which could be suitable and potentially able to accommodate a 400 kW solar farm.
  • When the quarries to the north of the Parish reach the end of their life, they are not suitable for solar farms even floating ones, due to their location and, in one case, a flooding risk.

Further details

The report contains details of the different types of solar panels available generating electricity, how they can be mounted, and has links to useful sites to predict what a system would produce and cost. It touches on the planning permission aspects (on which we are going to continue to lobby the county council).

Opportunities

  • For individual properties solar photovoltaic systems are not as lucrative as they were due to the closure of the feed-in tariff scheme, but they are still worth installing and domestic ones could save 1 tonne of CO2 a year.

  • If an additional fifty properties in the Parish installed solar panels, then we could save 50 tonnes of CO2 a year, just under 1% of the target.

  • If a 400 kW solar farm was installed, then an additional 100 tonnes of CO2 a year could be saved, another 2% of the target.