The solar farm is installed on a 12.65 acre (5.1 hectare) field near Lymington in Hampshire. Total installed capacity is 2.4MWp – but the maximum we can export to the Grid is 2.0 MW – limited by local Grid capacity. This is enough to supply about 650 local homes (or about 700 kettles or 2 million mobile phone chargers!).
There are 9372 solar panels with a capacity of 255Wp each. The output from the panels is processed by 64 inverters and enters the grid at 11kV.
Find out more about the equipment installed on site: Solar Farm Diagram
View Solar Farm output live online
Output performance figures for the solar farm can be viewed live online on our interface with the Unity platform. Click on the graph below to view performance over different time periods.
View live performance figures.
The field was previously a gravel pit which was then used for landfill. Only 28% of the area of the field is covered by solar equipment, and only 3% of the field surface is no longer soil. The rest of the field between the solar panels is planted with a mix of wildflowers and grass. The ecology of the site has been surveyed by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife trust and is carefully monitored to ensure maximum benefit for wildlife.
The Principal Contractor for the installation was Solarcentury who undertook the design work and project management. The Main Contractor for all construction work on site was Arun Construction. Operations and Maintenance support is currently provided by Dynamic Energy Solutions, who are a team of ex-Solarcentury O&M engineers; the previous 5-year term was covered by Empower Energy, based at Ringwood, who are now specialising in roof-top solar installations.