Jersey Electricity and La Mare Wine Estate have partnered to install a demonstration ground-mount solar installation which will support tourism and lead the way in exploring which crops grow best around solar panels locally.
The site, which will be open to the public and visitors to La Mare Wine Estate will allow Islanders and visitors the opportunity to see and experience a ground- mount solar installation as it will form part of the venue’s established walking tour. A wildflower meadow will be planted around the panels to encourage wildlife and pollinators to flourish. The energy produced from the four panels, around 2,550 kWh per year, will be used to help power the Wine Estate, building its sustainability credentials and the local provenance of the produce grown on the site.
Jersey Electricity (JE) will use the solar array to provide stakeholders with a greater understanding of ground-mount solar panels and their size and to demonstrate to prospective farming partners how the panels can work alongside agriculture.
Agrivoltaics is the term used for land which is used for solar energy production and agriculture. The solar array is the first step in an agricultural partnership between JE and La Mare Wine Estate to start to test which crops fare best growing around ground-mounted solar arrays, as they become an increasingly more important part of Jersey’s energy mix in the coming years.
Tim Crowley, managing director of La Mare Vineyards, said: “For the past two decades La Mare has been a leader in green business practice so this new partnership is a very natural one for us and we are delighted to be working with such a passionate team who share the same values for a sustainable and greener Island for us all. Agrivoltaics is an exciting new area for us to be involved in and we look forward to learning and developing new ideas with the JE team.”
Mark Preece, JE’s COO, said: “It is an exciting time in Jersey’s locally-generated renewable energy journey and this first phase in our partnership with La Mare Wine Estate has many benefits. We are excited that these four panels give us the opportunity to dispel myths around ground-mount solar – for example that no light passes through and farming and wildlife can’t flourish around the panels – and to show future potential partners what a ground-mount site could look like if they decided to work with us on a ground-mount project.
“Thank you to Tim and the team at La Mare for joining us in this ground-breaking concept for local renewable energy production, agriculture and tourism. This is a brilliant opportunity for our community to engage with ground-mount solar and learn more about the innovative technology that will generate local energy for our community while heralding a new agricultural crop for our fields.”
