A SOLAR power station, the largest of its kind in the county, has opened at a Dorset farm.

The 1,780 solar panels at Slepe Farm are capable of generating 505kWh of electricity which is enough to power around 200 average UK households, say the engineers behind the scheme.

The renewable energy plant, near Lytchett Minster, Purbeck, is just five miles from the proposed site of the £14m Alaska Wind Farm, which was refused permission by district councillors in April following years of constant wrangling.

Opponents of the four-turbine wind farm always maintained it was not the best type of renewable energy for the Purbeck countryside.

The Slepe Farm plant was commissioned by Farm Power, but designed and managed by national energy solutions company Anesco.

Landlord James Selby Bennett has also supported the green energy initiative.

Anesco CEO Adrian Pike said: “Unlike other solar power stations, Slepe Farm has been commissioned, designed, supplied and built entirely by UK teams from across the south of England.

“It really shows how the southern counties are driving ahead as leaders in the green energy sector, something also having a knock-on effect for communities through the creation of jobs.”

It was officially opened in a ceremony conducted by HM Lord-Lieutenant of Dorset Mrs Anthony Pitt-Rivers.

The plant will be among the last to qualify for higher rate government subsidies for generating power.

Following the opening, Farm Power’s managing director Mark Simon said: “Farm Power is acting quickly to implement solar and other renewable generation capacity in otherwise redundant sites, close to users, where the electricity can be efficiently and non-disruptively generated.”