Jackson installs UK’s largest solar farm by tariff deadline.
Our impact
22,000
Solar panels installed
5mw
Electricity generated by solar farm
1.8km
Amount of fencing installed
65km
Of steel mounts used
At the time, Westmill Solar Farm was Britain’s largest solar array.
Tight deadline
The Jackson team worked to a tight deadline to install this 22,000 panel solar energy array at Westmill Solar Farm near Swindon and bring the farm online before the closing date of the Government’s existing Feed-in-Tariff (FiT).
With only a two-month contract period, the team had to work swiftly to get the job done and successfully met the target before the terms of the FiT changed.
At the time, the farm was Britain’s largest solar array, based across an area equivalent to eight football pitches and generating up to 5MW of electricity – power for up to 1000 homes.
Balancing act: Vehicle movements are restricted to protect wildlife including over-wintering as well as nesting birds.
Each of the photovoltaic plates was mounted at a height of three metres.
Project in numbers
Each of the photovoltaic plates was mounted at a height of three metres using a total of 68 km of steel – enough to stretch across London from one side of the M25 to the other with plenty to spare.
In addition, the solar farm required 132,000 screws and 1.8 km of fencing. The project took on average 20 men working for eight weeks in total from beginning to end.
West Mill Solar Farm was also the subject of the UK’s largest community co-operative scheme, providing local residents among other shareholders the chance to own a part of the unique project.
To complete the UK’s largest solar energy farm in such a short period of time is a tremendous achievement.
Chris Dean, managing director, Blue Energy
