Bridlington Holiday Park Gets Its Own Solar Farm

Tuesday, 18 May 2021 07:13

By Matthew Pells

Bridlington's South Cliff Holiday park is going solar powered.

A 370kw solar farm has been installed at the site as part of a larger refurbishment project.

Councillor Chris Matthews is portfolio holder for environment and climate change at the East riding of Yorkshire Council he says it will provide a significant amount of the parks energy.

The power plant will generate zero carbon electricity that will be supplied directly to the site, significantly reducing carbon emissions, and providing 45% of the site’s annual electricity usage.

The 370kw farm has cost 1.8 million pounds. Councillor Matthews says the solar farm will have a range of benefits.

The holiday park is the latest East Riding of Yorkshire venue to get solar panels. Councillor Matthews says that over the last decade the council has taken the opportunity to install panels on many of it's buildings when they arise.

The solar panels are expected to generate around 45% of the sites electricity, and councillor MAtthews hopes this can be increased in the future with improvements in the technology.

Along with the installation of solar panels will be the provision of electric vehicle charging points at each of the council buildings and the solar farm. This will allow any visitors who have access to an electric vehicle to ‘top up’ their vehicles during their stay ‘free of charge’. This rollout of green electric vehicle charging infrastructure within the area will remove some of the barriers to electric vehicle ownership.

The solar farm at South Cliff Holiday Park will significantly reduce carbon by 130 tonnes a year, which is equivalent to the carbon savings associated with powering 22 homes for an entire year.

The shower blocks at the holiday park are heated using ground source heat pumps which use the free heat from the ground to provide low carbon heat. They also have solar thermal panels on the roof, which means much of the hot water used by holidaymakers has been heated by the sun.

In addition, the toilet and shower blocks on the site have motion –tracking lights, so they switch off when the buildings are unoccupied.

The solar farm started on site in March, and has just been completed, making South Cliff Holiday Park one of the greenest holiday parks within the United Kingdom.

The estimated total value of the investment in the solar farm and solar panels is £1,895,341. The council has contributed £1,047,365 towards the scheme. The project was supported with funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to and will also see solar panels installed on the roofs of 22 council buildings, including leisure centres and libraries.