The Sheffield Solar Farm forms part of Project Sunshine, which aims to harness the power of the sun to tackle the increasing food and energy needs of the world’s population in light of uncertain climate and global environment change.
Funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund, to promote knowledge transfer and new links between industry, society and academia, the Farm will allow real world testing of photovoltaics . The 58m2 silicon photovoltaic solar panel installation includes a test bed to compare new and existing photovoltaic technologies, linking laboratory testing to field application. The data collected will be distributed to researchers, installers, policy makers and the public.
Power generation data from the Farm will be continually accessible on line, along with the sun’s irradiance (both direct and diffuse), temperature and wind.
The main solar panel installation and test bed.
The Farm will also provide an educational tool to allow the demonstration of the real world performance of photovoltaic technologies.
The Technologies
The Farm will offer a comprehensive range of photovoltaic technology.
Primarily, a large crystalline silicon installation will feed back into the University’s electrical system and the national grid. It is expected to generate around 6,500 kW hr per annum.
Secondly, the Farm contains a test bed for new generation photovoltaic technologies, including the following:
- Different silicon manufacturers – to compare the latest developments in the state of the art silicon products.
- Flexible thin film photovoltaics – such as amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium selenide – for lightweight integration into buildings.
- Dye sensitised solar cells and polymer photovoltaics – the potential next generation of low cost solar power.
Layout
The following is a schematic of the panel layout on the roof of the Hicks Building at the University of Sheffield:
