{"id":6267,"date":"2018-02-23T12:32:44","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T12:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.portal.solar.com\/learn\/what-is-a-solar-panel-farm\/"},"modified":"2019-06-27T07:38:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T07:38:40","slug":"what-is-a-solar-panel-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-is-a-solar-panel-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is A Solar Panel Farm?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<html><body><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each year, there are newer and more powerful solar technologies made available for individuals and consumers. These solar solutions are not just limited to rooftop panels for home and business-owners but include a <\/span><a style=\"background-color: transparent;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/2018-craziest-solar-technologies\/\">wide-variety of technologies<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Although rooftop panels are a great way to promote mass consumer to adopt solar, there are other methods for a community to achieve a 100% renewable energy goal, particularly for individuals who don&#8217;t have the right home situation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because not every home or building will be able to support its own solar system, the idea of the solar panel farm came to life.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solar Farms Explained<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A solar panel farm is simply a collection of solar panels, also called an array, that can be used for both residential solar needs, as well as larger-scale utility solar needs. It can be small or big, but the main theme is that its purpose is to be a source of solar energy for a collection of people, businesses, homes, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps the most significant value of solar panel farms is that they do not need to be installed on the energy consumer&#146;s property. This means that home and business owners would be able to use solar sourced energy without having to take on the financial responsibility of installation. It is a collective approach to providing clean and renewable energy to the masses.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Community Solar Farms<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/community-solar\/\">Community solar farms<\/a> are used to provide residential properties with access to solar energy. The residents of a community where a solar panel farm is installed will have the option to purchase energy from this source, just as they would for purchasing it from another energy provider. These farms, which are sometimes referred to as &#147;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.solargardens.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">solar gardens<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#148;, are usually mounted to the ground and can span for many acres. Obviously, the larger the solar array, the more energy is generated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Community solar panel farms are very attractive to individuals who do not want to install panels where they are living but want to make use of clean energy. There can be several reasons why someone would not want to install rooftop panels: it is too expensive for them, they do not own the property, or maybe they are just unsure if they will be at that property for long. Community solar panel farms are a great way to supply renewable energy to these types of individuals.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Large-Scale Utility Solar Panel Farms<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Large-scale solar panel farms have been used to generate and supply clean energy for more than 20 years. Also referred to as utility-scale solar panel farms, these are usually owned and developed by governments or private businesses. They can either be used for the entities own energy needs or can be resupplied to other energy consumers through the grid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Utility-scale solar farms are projected to be the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fastest growing segment<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the solar power market, and because of this, it is poised to make a huge impact on energy generation in general. A big reason why there is so much focus on this area of solar is that it allows for more accessibility by energy consumers. It goes back to the reality of how much more difficult it would be to install panels on every individual building.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can see some examples of these solar panel farms in places like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/forbes\/welcome\/?toURL=https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/trevornace\/2017\/07\/25\/china-just-built-250-acre-solar-farm-shaped-giant-panda\/&amp;refURL=https:\/\/www.google.com\/&amp;referrer=https:\/\/www.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">China<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where they have really stepped up their initiative around <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/china-to-invest-360-bln-in-renewable-power-in-2016-2020\/a-37031957\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">renewable energy investment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and development. These panels can make a tremendous impact in the effort to mitigate CO2 and other harmful gases.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mass Production of Solar Energy<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The main purpose of a solar panel farm is to create a large enough array so that the needs of a collective group of energy consumers can be met. When deployed at such a scale, the cost for energy production goes down enough to make this form of renewable energy almost as cheap as fossil fuels. As the development of solar panel farms continues, we will start to see more availability in cheap and clean energy.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What&#8217;s Better &#8211; Rooftop Solar or Solar Farms?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s hard to give an exact answer to the question of whether rooftop solar or solar farms are better. It will depend on every individual&#8217;s situation. Most importantly, both options will result in savings on conventional energy bills. If a homeowner owns a rooftop solar system, he\/she stands to save much more than a community solar arrangement, primarily because there is no outside entity facilitating the solar array. It&#8217;s your&#8217;s, so you capture all of the savings!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Use our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/\">online solar calculator<\/a> to see if your property is solar friendly. If not, opting into a solar farm can be a great solution to tap into clean power!<\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each year, there are newer and more powerful solar technologies made available for individuals and consumers. These solar solutions are not just limited to rooftop panels for home and business-owners&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.5 (Yoast SEO v19.10) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Is A Solar Panel Farm? | Solar.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A solar panel farm is simply a collection of solar panels, also called an array, that can be used for both residential solar needs, as well as larger-scale utility solar needs. 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