Glastonbury becomes the festival of light

Michael Eavis the farmer and founder of Glastonbury Festival today unveiled Worthy Farm's solar power generating system - the largest privately owned system in the UK.

Situated on farmland which is also home to the Glastonbury Festival, Britain's second largest photovoltaic electricity generating system is now fully operational and further develops the 'Love The Farm Leave No Trace' environmental ethos.

The solar power plant, consisting of a huge array of over 1,100 solar photovoltaic modules, only cost 1/60th of the grand pier at Weston-super-Mare, with the solar array of 1,500 square metres located on the roof of the farm's cowshed which is home to the farm's dairy herd.

The 200kW plant is expected to yield 160.704kWh a year, enough to supply 40 average households with energy and eliminate 100 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year, and brings farmer Eavis one big step closer to his goal of operating the farm as ecologically as possible. The panels are expected to keep providing electricity for at least 20 years and save over 2000 tonnes of CO2 in their lifetime.

This project has been generously supported by Tridos Bank, Western Power, EDF, Sputnik Engineering International, Sundog Energy, and the panels were made in the UK by a local firm, Solar Sense.

The farmer revealed that he was able to get funding for the whole project, and that funding for solar panels is available to anyone.

The electricity generated will be used directly to power the farm's buildings, and surplus exported to the National Grid, it's not expected to be used for Europe's largest open-air music event, attended by roughly 200,000 guests from all over the world.

The electricity will be sold back to the grid through the Department of Energy and Climate Change's feed-in tariff (FIT) project and payback time is expected to be nine years.

Next year's Glastonbury Festival runs for five full days from Wednesday 22nd until Sunday 26th June 2011 across over a 1,000 acres of beautiful countryside at Worthy Farm, Somerset. Expect something like 2,000 performances at 50 or so venues including music, cabaret, theatre, circus, a fantastic Kidz area, poetry, green crafts and information and loads, loads more ... much more than just the music, so make sure you check it all out!

Glastonbury Festival tickets have sold out, although a sale of returned/cancelled tickets is expected to take place in Spring next year. There will be no further UK payments taken until the booking site re-opens on Friday 1st April 1st 2011, when those who have successfully put down a deposit will have a week to pay their balance of £145 per ticket, and to book everything else they might need (tipis, campervan tickets, parking, insurance).

Everyone who plans to the come the Festival must register, and that includes children aged 13, 14 and 15. Each ticket sold will feature a photograph of the person in whose name it is registered and will be non-transferable. So if you plan to buy tickets for friends or family you must make sure they all register!

For more details about registering and ticket information click here.

As usual eFestivals will bring you the very best-sourced rumours, allowing festival-goers to see who is playing long before the bands are formally announced - keep your eyes on the Glastonbury 2011 rumours, updated as we receive information.

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