Solar Panels For Horticulture

Horticultural businesses often have large greenhouses that require heating, irrigation and lighting to produce fruit, plants and vegetables. Solar PV provides a cost effective and environmentally friendly method of powering these energy intensive systems.

Geo Green Power are specialists in producing bespoke solar PV installations for horticultural businesses, both ground-mounted and roof-mounted systems. When Micropropogation Services needed to build 6500sqm acres of greenhouses, we were able to install a 150kW solar pv system on the greenhouse roof, providing an annual output of 135,000kWh.

Agricultural businesses have always been experts at harnessing the power of the sun, so it’s no wonder that they have been quick to realise the benefits of using their agricultural buildings or parcels of underused land to generate electricity, reaping financial rewards from ‘solar farming’. However, the benefits of solar PV go much further than that.

A rural location means that ‘solar’ farmers enjoy greater independence from the national grid, giving them greater control over energy costs, protection from power outages and the added potential of battery storage systems for storing surplus energy. Finally, as the demand for locally sourced and sustainable produce grows, so does the need for low carbon energy and reduced greenhouse gases.

Volmary’s 20 acres of greenhouses require heating, irrigation and lighting systems to produce both colourful and edible plants and vegetables for the UK and European horticultural market. With an electricity bill of over £100,000 a year, they were keen to look for ways to reduce it.