The One Earth project team enjoys a site visit to one of our working solar farms
In partnership with Orsted, we are developing One Earth, a solar farm located at the border of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. To help develop the project, we’ve assembled a project team of experts in their fields, from engineering to design, to planning and community relations. They spend plenty of time in the field, getting to know the land and community where the project will be developed, but it’s a rare opportunity to get to see a working solar farm. That’s why we organised a team visit to one of our operational solar farms, Hamer Warren in New Forest, for the One Earth team.
On nearly the coldest day of the year, the pond at Hamer Warren was frozen and so were our toes, but we all eagerly carried on. Even if you see numerous diagrams, photos, and other visualisations, there’s nothing like actually standing next to a solar panel to really appreciate its size. Similarly, you can calculate the decibels, but you have to hear the quiet buzz of a transformer to really understand what the components sound like. None of the infrastructure is nearly as big or noisy as people are led to believe.
One of the goals of the One Earth design is to use natural screening to minimise the visual impact as much as possible. In fact, our site visit to Hamer Warren started a bit late because so many of the team couldn’t find it. ‘We couldn’t see it at all from the road, and just drove straight by it!’, said one member of the team. Because the site was designed around the natural screening and gently rolling hills, even from inside the solar farm, it’s hard to get a sense of how big the site really is.
In addition to setting up the opportunity for the team to simply see, hear, and wander around the site – we had organised for our Hamer Waren project leader and his team to be present. This allowed the One Earth team to ask a variety of questions about the construction process, how the components work together, and what is needed for the ongoing operation of the solar farm.
‘I’m really glad we had this opportunity for all of the disciplines to be present, to see the site, and meet the project manager to help inform the One Earth project. Perhaps next time, we can do it in the summer!’
