Cow farmer and Glastonbury Festival organiser Michael Eavis has added a new solar PV installation to his dairy buildings to start generating free electricity for milking the herd and keeping their milk cool.
Eavis already has one of the UK’s largest private solar roofs on one of his cowsheds, nicknamed the Mootel and now he has added another array of solar panels on a second shed housing young calves and their mothers.
The renowned environmentalist was so impressed with how well the first 1,100 panels have performed since they were installed on his Somerset farm in Autumn 2010 that he got local company Solarsense back to install another 200 panels.
The second array covers an area larger than a tennis court and will generate almost 45,000 kilowatt hours of free electricity every year for use on the farm and during the festivals.
It will also save more than 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide, produced by burning fossil fuels, from being pumped into the atmosphere every year, while earning money under the Government’s Feed-in Tariff
Michael Eavis’ goal is to run the farm as ecologically as possible. He said: “Generating our electricity using solar PV panels is fantastic and couldn’t get any better. It produces no smell or dirt, there’s no wages to pay for producing it and we get all this wonderful free electricity.”
Hannah Spungin of Solarsense, said: “We are delighted to be able to help Michael Eavis cut the farm’s carbon footprint even further. We hope the latest installation will encourage other farmers and businesses to think about the benefits of using renewable energy to reduce their own electricity bills and carbon emissions.”
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