THE return of sunny weather proved a welcome – if short-lived – bonus for the launch of the UK’s first solar powered business park in Oxfordshire.

More than 3,000 solar panels have been installed at Howbery Business Park, near Wallingford, and in Monday’s sunshine they were generating enough electricity to power the entire site.

The installation has been developed at a cost of more than £2m by water and environmental consultancy HR Wallingford which employs 250 people on the site.

Chief executive John Ormston said: “We use power generated by the panels on the park during the day and then in the evenings and at weekends it is exported to the National Grid.

“The recent good weather has meant we have been able to power the entire park using solar electricity and through the course of the year we expect to produce more than 25 per cent of our needs.”

Mr Ormston reckons the investment will be paid off in between five and seven years thanks to the Government’s Feed In Tariffs which will see him paid 31p a unit for electricity.

The Government is cutting the rate from August 1,which means further solar parks are unlikely to be developed in the near future, according to Mr Ormston.

He added: “The reduction in the tariff will have a detrimental effect on business, schools and local authorities using solar power.

“Larger scale solar parks will be put on hold until the price of the panels comes down but I don’t think you can put a price on the environment.”

It is estimated that more than 350 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions will be cut in a year at the park which employs almost 1,000 staff in 20 different organisations.

While Howbery Park is the first solar park in the UK to go live, others are in the pipeline in the county.

A 5,600-panel farm, off Milton Road, Shipton-under-Wychwood was given the go-ahead by West Oxfordshire District Council in May.

And work is under way on enough panels to power 1,000 homes for a year on a 30-acre site at Westmill Farm in Watchfield, near Faringdon, where Oxfordshire’s first windfarm is already in operation.

Construction of the Howbery Park installation started in May and was completed last week by solar specialist Solarcentury.

Derry Newman, Solarcentury chief executive, said: “The solar at Howbery Business Park provides a glimpse of how this technology can contribute to our clean energy future. It is the fastest growing energy technology in the world, simply because it is clean, reliable and a readily available alternative to fossil fuels .”