Voltfarmer

Q1. Why take up valuable agricultural land rather than commercial roofs?

A1. Volt Farmer specifically targets land where we can combine solar farming with other sustainable agriculture. Placing a paddock into solar electricity production can easily co-exist with a range of other farming activities. Many farmers are enduring a prolonged drought and a solar farm can provide them with passive income for long periods. After the end of the project, the farmland is returned to pasture.

Q2. Do solar farms create heat lakes?

Q2. Solar farms have been shown to cool the pasture surface temperature which increases soil biological activity. Grazing animals and wildlife take shade under the solar panels. 

Q3. Will birds think the solar farm is a lake?

A3. Experience has shown birds are much smarter than humans think. With lots of dairy farm slurry lakes, mining sludge lakes and abattoir waste lakes in existence we have found birds remarkably ‘aware’ of fake lakes. As keen ornithologists, we have looked at solar farms in Europe, USA and Asia for recurring incidents of ‘confused birds’ plunging into solar farms. If it was an issue solar farm developers would be spending resources to prevent bird casualties as this would also affect the efficiency of a solar farm. We have created grass avenues for any ‘confused’ bird that might happen to land in our solar farm so that they can easily take off again. Our solar farms are also very small scale and the panels are matt.

Q4. What local shared value does a Volt Farmer solar farm produce?

A4. We provide the landowner with a long term reliable rental income, we supply clean energy to whoever wishes to buy it and we also develop additional enterprise opportunities to benefit directly from the low-cost electricity.