The Great Yorkshire Show is now home to one of the largest solar arrays in the area after the completion of a 245kWp solar array at its headquarters in Harrogate.
The impressive array consists of almost 1,000 Suntech modules covering more than 1,600m2 of roof space at the showground.
The installation was carried out by local installer Duncan Renewables and was completed in less than a month. Duncan Renewables predicts that the array will provide 203,473kWh of clean electricity, generating approximately £15,000 per year in FiT payments for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society.
Nigel Pulling, Chief Executive of The Yorkshire Agricultural Society said: “Operating in a sustainable way is very important to us. Being a year round exhibition centre we have a significant electricity requirement and installing solar panels was an obvious step we could take to reduce both our costs and our carbon footprint.
“The scale of the project was somewhat daunting but Duncan Renewables has done a first class job in managing the installation from the initial planning permission application right through to registering the system with OFGEM. Due to the number of events we hold here, there was a narrow window within which to complete the project but the team from Duncan Renewables worked efficiently to ensure that the system is up and running in time for The Great Yorkshire Show.
Pulling concluded: “We are delighted with the end result and look forward to enjoying the benefits over the next 25 years.”
Over the next 25 years the system is estimated to save over 400 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.