solar farm Newlands Solar Farm construction off Newgate Lane, Fareham. Paul Holmes-Ling, left, and Frank Blaeul. Picture: Paul Jacobs (14422-4)
Published in the Portsmouth News on 18th March 2014
Story by Kimberley Barber
Solar farm panels are set to become a regular sight across the UK’s countryside
The shiny panels, all neatly lined up, are popping up on fields that were once ploughed by farmers.
Typically they are situated on lower-grade agricultural land and the attraction for the owners of this type of land clearly lies in the panels’ ability to generate cash, especially as some agricultural land struggles to compete as supermarkets hammer down prices.
Project manager Frank Blaeul and business development manager Paul Holmes-Ling, from Vogt Solar, invited The News to see the work taking place to build a 27-hectare site on land off Tanners Lane, west of Newgate Lane, Fareham.
More than 150 people have been working on the 66-acre site to install 3,418 racks of panels, with 24 panels on each rack, since work started last September.
Mr Blaeul said: ‘Compared to other construction sites, the most difficult was the logistics to bring our deliveries as we can’t move because there is no spare land left. We have had some 100 lorries bringing in panels, with restrictions to not bring in the panels between certain times. That’s really hard to manage. We’ve had to create an access track to spread the material across the field and that’s also very hard.’
The panels will stay on the land for 25 years and then it will be reviewed.
Mr Holmes-Ling says all the materials, including the panels, can be recycled at the end of its life and there is very little concrete on the site, as the racks of panels are hammered like a post into the ground.
Continue reading Solar farms are growing, but what’s the attraction?
Follow Havant FOE