Bosses at the country’s biggest glasshouse grower of fruit and vegetables, based in Kent, will be hoping for sunnier times ahead after splashing out £900,000 on solar panels.

The huge rooftop array has been installed on the packhouse and office buildings at Thanet Earth in Birchington which now has 2,740 panels.

With about 86% of the power produced used in-house, it could cut packhouse energy bills and now uses 32% solar power, while the rest will be exported to the grid.

The panels will generate about 1,000 megawatt hours a year of clean energy – equal to powering about 250 homes’ annual use.

Founded in 2005, with the aim of cutting expensive imports and producing more homegrown produce, Thanet Earth has expanded over the years to become Britain’s leading glasshouse complex, covering the equivalent of 166 football pitches.

Its enormous greenhouses produce about 400 million tomatoes, 30 million cucumbers and 24 million peppers every year.

Largely owned by the Fresca Group, the business supplies major supermarkets across the UK and had a turnover of £125 million in 2022 and employs about 250 permanent staff.

Its cucumbers have even ended up on the shelves of M&S in its overseas branches as far away as Singapore.

In 2016, the business was also accused of being one of the worst ‘light polluters’ in the country.

BeBa Energy says the Thanet Earth project is one of several major installations the company has performed at major horticultural and agricultural buildings in the county as growers seek to reduce their carbon footprint and cut energy bills.

Technical director at Thanet Earth, Rob James added: “This was an important project for us as we work towards delivering net zero. Prior to this, we had completed two carbon reduction projects, but this was the most complex.”