The panels will produce electricity for the building itself, while any excess energy will be fed back into the national grid. This means that the University will earn money from both the export feed-in tariff as well as the generation tariff.

This array of 70m² photovoltaic panels has been designed to provide a real-world test platform for photovoltaic technology and communicating the effectiveness of solar in Northern latitudes.
 
Manufacturer, Sharp Solar, provided the monocrystalline silicon solar PV panels used in the project. It is expected to generate around 8000 kW hr per annum.
 
Dr Alan Whitehead MP, chair of the PRASEG Solar PV Forum welcomed the opening of the new project and used it to take a dig at the government, saying: "I hope that they will also continue to support flagship green initiatives, such as the Renewable Heat Incentive and Feed-in Tariffs, in order to make good on their promise of being the UK’s “greenest government.”
 
The Solar Farm project is part of Project Sunshine which aims to harness the power of the sun to tackle the increasing food and energy needs of the world’s population in light of uncertain climate and global environment change.

> http://shine.sheffield.ac.uk/