Over 500,000 units a year from largest solar PV array in Channel Islands
Jersey Electricity and Jersey Dairy have sealed a partnership to generate another half a million units a year of local solar power. The Royal Court has granted a 25-year lease for JE to install and operate what will become the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) array in the Channel Islands on the Dairy’s roof.
With the lease agreement in place, work on the 2,500 square metres array is expected to start early next month. Once operational in November, the 521kWp installation is expected to generate more than half a million units a year. That’s enough to power almost 70 Jersey homes using an average of 7,300 units a year.
It will be the fourth solar array JE will own and operate to feed directly on to the grid to give all Islanders a share of locally generated renewable energy. It follows the 81kWp array JE installed on the roof of its La Collette Power Station last summer, a 47kWp array, opened in April, at Jersey’s first Solar Hub carport at Queen’s Road and a 255kWp array currently being installed at Woodside Farm, Trinity.
JE will again partner local solar contractors SunWorks to project manage, install and commission the array.
JE CEO Chris Ambler said: ‘We are delighted to cement another 25-year partnership with local business for the on-Island generation of solar power. Working in collaboration with more local companies, we believe solar power can have an increased long-term role in our energy system. It sits comfortably alongside our imported renewable hydropower which already accounts for a third of the electricity used in Jersey.
‘We want to see Jersey make a green recovery in the aftermath of the Coronavirus crisis and we believe projects like this, in partnership with local businesses, will help to not only stimulate economic recovery but also make it a green recovery.’
Jersey Dairy MD Eamon Fenlon said: Jersey Dairy and our dairy farmers are committed to adopting good environmental practices and this project fits with that commitment and the many other positive environmental initiatives that the dairy industry is actively implementing.’
Mark Brandon, founder and Director of SunWorks, said: ‘We are delighted help enable more local solar power on to Jersey’s grid with one of the biggest roofs we could find. Local energy projects like this fit in with the ethos of “build back better” as we see an increased demand for renewable power and different ways of low-impact living post Covid-19.’
