Jersey's first solar farm - the biggest in the Channel Islands - has been switched on.
The sun was shining down on Jersey Electricity this week, providing perfect weather for the switch-on of the island's first solar farm.
The ground array in St Clement is now in use and will be able to generate enough power for up to 650 homes - that's 14% of households in the parish.
It has immediately doubled the island's solar generating capacity from existing rooftop panels.
The majority of Jersey's energy is imported from France via undersea cables. Chris Ambler, Jersey Electricity's CEO says this is a major step in the move towards more local production
"We need to diversify our sources of supply.
"Ground solar is the big opportunity. It is attractive because we can keep the costs down, we can keep prices lower and more stable over the longer term.
Testing has shown the solar farm generated 482 MWh for March - more than 30% more than forecast.
JE is already looking at other opportunities for ground arrays, with three sites already receiving consent.
"The strategy is to build out 25 MWp - so six of these facilities - and that would deliver around a third of our peak summer demand for electric power on the Jersey network."
Mr Ambler says the project is also a model for dual land use, with 100 sheep grazing amongst the solar panels.
"We want to keep this land in agricultural use. That is an important benefit of this. We want to try to continue to invest in some sort of agricultural activity and to innovate in that area.
"We want to really encourage the regeneration of the soil. This land will rest, and at the end of the 40 year period it is going to be in far better condition."
Jeremy Hughes, owner of Panigot Farm approached JE back in 2022 when he first heard about plans for the solar farm.
"It’s brilliant to see my sheep in these fields today, enjoying the land and panels’ shelter. With access to this land, I hope Panigot Farm will be able to expand and our lamb become a produce that is available to all Jersey people and on more local restaurant menus.”
Mr Ambler says it is a true community scheme and islanders can go to the JE website to see how much power the solar farm is making:
"We are sharing the production data - and it is updated every fifteen minutes.
"It is important that the island feels it can see some of the benefits and be, in a sense, a part of the project."
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