Dr. Patrick Candler, CEO of Sherwood Forest Trust, earlier this week marked the official opening of a brand new, three-acre solar panel farm at Ransom Wood Business Park in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The event celebrated a landmark occasion for Ransom Wood Business Park, as it moved closer toward its aim of becoming a world-class centre of renown for synchronous business and environmental management.
The new solar farm boasts more than 2,000 photovoltaic panels which will be able to provide up to 450 KW of power. Ransom Wood Business Park spans around 110,000 square feet, of which more than 75,000 square feet is occupied office space, a restaurant and a nursery. The offices, restaurant and nursery require an average of 50 - 400 KW when fully functioning, which means that the solar panel farm will be able to produce enough electricity to power all the businesses on the park. According to Ransom Wood Estates, the solar farm marks the UK’s only self-sustaining business park when it comes to power supply.
"We believe that we are leading the way in environmental management and business support," said James Cannon, director of
Ransom Wood Estates, the company that manages the business park. Cannon sees
the solar panel farm as having multiple benefits for tenants and the wider community surrounding Ransom Wood. "We reused the old buildings we inherited on the site and have incorporated sound environmental policies wherever appropriate to benefit out tenants. They will be able to power their businesses with the knowledge that no fossil fuels are being used to keep them running. With the solar farm on-line, we will be able to run the business park in a self-sustaining way when it comes to energy use, reducing carbon emissions by thousands of tonnes each year."
Charles Cannon, fellow director (and brother to James), says the decision to set up the solar panel farm was as much about ethics as it was economics and environmental management. “Ransom Wood is all about creating the right space in which people can work without the added stress factors of living out of an office," he explained. "The history of the site is one of the environment supporting the well-being of people using it, and we are determined that continues."
Ransom Wood Estates has invested more than £660,000 in the solar panel farm, which in time will involve rare-breed sheep grazing the meadows and the development of new flora to attract more wildlife to the site. In time, the farm will be made open to school visits to educate children about the environment and sustainable power sources.