The Monarch started building the huge solar farm with 2,000 panels on a former horse grazing paddock behind the house last October – now it has been connected up to the Royal estate. It means he can make the most of the current heatwave in England to ensure his estate is completely powered by the SUN. The panels have been placed across 2.3 hectares of land, providing a combined total of 2.1MW of energy, which is now being used by the 20,000 acre estate – with a small amount of additional capacity exported to the grid.
The facility, which now provides zero carbon energy to Sandringham House, the Visitor Centre and the Sawmill, has an “operational lifespan of 40 years” after which the field will be returned to horse grazing. Tall trees means the solar farm is mostly hidden from view at ground level from the 500,000 tourists which visit the estate every year. The solar panels are made from toughened glass and mounted on a steel framework set at an angel of 25 degrees and facing south.
The original planning application suggested the solar farm would add value to the estate as a popular tourist destination, adding: “The well-screened nature of the site and modest scale of the development means the majority of these visitors would not be aware of the proposed solar array. However the estate may wish to publicise its journey to transition away from carbon-based energy production and, in that sense, the proposed solar development would add further value to the estate as a tourism destination.”
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