Solar Panels

• About eighty properties in the Parish have roofs with aspects suitable for solar systems of about 4 kW each. 
• A 4kW south facing array would pay for itself over its lifetime at current electricity costs and save 1 tonne of CO₂ a year.
• The economics of fitting solar panels now depends on the use of electricity in the building, being best when houses are occupied during the day.
• The grid connection rules currently would make siting solar arrays on barns in the Parish uneconomic, but this might change in the future.
• The general feeling before the study was that we did not want to site a solar farm, i.e., a large array of ground mounted, photovoltaic panels, on good agricultural land. There is little low grade agricultural land in the Parish, but there is one small area near Lincoln Hill which could be suitable and potentially able to accommodate a 400 kW solar farm.
• When the quarries to the north of the Parish reach the end of their life, they are not suitable for solar farms even floating ones, due to their location and, in one case, a flooding risk.

For individual properties solar photovoltaic systems are not as lucrative as they were due to the closure of the feed-in tariff scheme, but they are still worth installing and domestic ones could save 1 tonne of CO₂ a year.

If an additional fifty properties in the Parish installed solar panels, then we could save 50 tonnes of CO₂ a year, just under 1% of the target.

If a 400 kW solar farm was installed, then an additional 100 tonnes of CO₂ a year could be saved, another 2% of the target.