Work begins on Sheffield University solar farm

The Sheffield Solar Farm, which is being funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), will comprise 70m² of photovoltaic panels on the roof of the university’s Hicks building.

The Solar Farm will benefit both the university and photovoltaics researchers, and developers around the UK, who will be able to use it to field-test their new and experimental photovoltaic-cell designs, in a bid to further their knowledge of renewable energy sources. It is thought that the main installation of the Solar Farm will be completed by the beginning of July.

While providing a benchmark for the use of photovoltaics in northerly latitudes, such as the UK, the Sheffield Solar Farm will also be used to provide electricity to the Hicks Building and the National Grid − reducing the university’s carbon footprint.

To monitor the effectiveness of the photovoltaic technology being tried and tested on the roof, equipment will log data and display it on a specially designed website for the Solar Farm. This will include a live webcam and web-feed demonstrating the actual power being generated by each panel, the total power the sun is radiating on the roof and how the weather is affecting the amount of energy produced, as well as offering a comparison of the different photovoltaic technologies.