Work Begins Constructing Wrexham’s First Solar Farm

Work has commenced on the construction of the Legacy Solar Farm on Council-owned land in Wrexham.

This £2.5million project which is being built on the Berthengron Farm, Rhosllanurchrugog is around 15 football pitches in size and will contain in the region of 8,800, 300-watt panels. When complete the site will generate enough electricity to power around 700 homes for a year.

The solar farm will also reduce the carbon footprint of otherwise using fossil fuel by 1,300 tonnes of CO2 a year – the equivalent to flying from Cardiff to Cork 9,100 times or travelling 32½million miles by train during the life of the project.

Currently the site is used as grazing land for sheep – however the design of the solar farm, with its wide gaps between the solar modules, will leave 70% of the land available for the landowner to continue grazing their sheep.

In what is the first scheme British Gas have undertaken for Wrexham Council on photovoltaic technology, the company is the principal contractor and is responsible for building, commissioning and maintaining the site. British Gas have also completed all the designs, are responsible for ordering the materials and arranging the scheme’s installation by their approved sub-contractors.

Solar farm installations have a much lower environmental impact than other forms of power generation, also can allow for animals to graze peacefully between the rows of light trapping modules. There is no waste or by-products, no moving parts, no noise, no pollution and only minimal maintenance is required.

Councillor Neil Rogers, Lead Member for Economic Development and Regeneration, said: “The improvement in solar technology coupled with ever decreasing costs means that this very green form of energy is now becoming a more cost-effective one.

“Wrexham CBC is the first Welsh Local Authority and only the third in the UK to own and operate a solar farm. The electricity produced will be fed into the National Grid and consequently generate an income for the council.”

The expected completion of the scheme is June 2015.