We Have The Energy

We told you a few weeks ago about the new solar panel system we were putting up, here at Radford Mill Farm. The project is now complete and the final parts of the system were connected up on 29th July. It is producing lots of lovely green electricity, although not so much today as its raining!

We had a tough time putting the system in place as we were on a tight deadline, due to a change in the government feed in tariffs that we wanted to take advantage of. The steel posts are dug down a metre into the soil, which consists mainly of clay and stones so that was not easy. We also had to line up all the posts using a clear plastic tube full of water, to get the heights right and string and spirit levels, to get everything in line and upright. The posts are all held in place by stones and concrete and each one took 3 or 4 people to carry and a tractor to lift in position!

The panels were finally bolted to the wooden framework about 9 o'clock in the evening but most of the work was done in the heat wave just before the Olympics started, so it was quite a task. I myself was drinking about 3 litres a day extra!

This system is rated at 3.66 Kilowatts and on a very sunny day, can produce enough electricity to power 3-5 houses. It's connected to the national grid, which absorbs and distributes the electricity and we hope to get the cost of the system back from the sale of its electricity, within about 10 years or so. After that the income will then be used to put up more solar panels or to do other sustainable projects on the farm.

This system was designed to do 3 jobs: produce electricity, collect rainwater and keep the rain off our machinery. Aim number 2 hasn't been realised yet as we still have not fitted the guttering but we think the other two aims have been admirably achieved.