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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Jillian Ambrose

Britain’s biggest community solar farm forced to shut over grid overload fears

Solar panels in a sunny field
The board of Derril Water believes that the problems with the network have been known since 2023. Photograph: Peter Cade/Getty Images

Britain’s biggest community solar project has been forced to shut for the duration of its first summer by the government’s energy system operator to avoid overloading the local grid with renewable energy.

The north Devon solar farm was ordered to shut weeks before record high temperatures across Europe led to power supply warnings, due to concerns that the large amount of rooftop solar in the area could destabilise the power grid by triggering a “thermal overload”.

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