August 10, 2012 8.00 am This story is over 139 months old

Lincolnshire solar farm to treble in size

Solar expansion: Firm plans to treble the size of its sheep-grazed solar panels farm near Lincoln.
The first Lincoln solar farm at Danes Farm in Stow is maintained by Freewatt and grazed by sheep. It generates over 3MW of power.

Stow-based Freewatt is proposing to add 8,300 extra solar panels to its solar farm near Lincoln, trebling the size of Danes Farm to 15 acres of land.

This will add a further 2MW of output to the existing 1.14 MW at a cost of around £2.5 million.

It is hoped the work will be complete and the new Conergy power plus panels will be on stream by the end of this year.

The existing solar farm and the new extension will continue to be grazed by sheep.

Freewatt’s project is the latest in a string of solar projects improving the green energy output of the county.

The company recently completed the largest roof top solar scheme in the East of England.

The company, which employs 24 people, has been responsible for 5MW of installations in 600 locations around the county, enough to power 1,000 homes and save 2,300 tons of CO2.

This will add a further 40% in one stroke to the solar energy produced across Lincolnshire through Freewatt installations.

Freewatt MD Julian Patrick has also embarked on a challenging project to create the greenest heritage home in the UK, which will serve as a blueprint for improving sustainability of older homes across the country.

He said: “The hardware costs have reduced to such an extent that the incentives available through the Feed in Tariff or Renewable Obligation Certificate schemes mean that returns on investment of 10-14% per annum can be achieved.

“We are now in another time of golden opportunity to invest in medium and commercial-scale solar projects. Our existing Conergy power plus installation has proven to be very productive.

“We chose to use premium German Conergy modules, which has meant that even though we have had one of the worst Summers in UK history we are still 7% above our annual generation target.”