It is best known as the home of the Glastonbury Festival but Worthy Farm will soon have another claim to fame – the UK’s largest private solar electricity system.

Festival founder Michael Eavis will invest in 1,500 square metres of solar panels that will each year generate the same amount of power used by 40 homes.

The solar cells will transform the roof of the world famous “Mootel” – the barns which house the farm’s dairy herd when their pasture is taken over by almost 200,000 revellers for a week every summer. Once they are installed the 1,100 panels will generate power all year round, whether the cows are lounging below or are back munching on the grass in the meadows.

Mr Eavis is looking forward to becoming an “energy farmer” on top of his current jobs as a herdsman and festival organiser. He told the Press: “This is going to be a fantastic project and we are very excited about starting work on it.

“We are always thinking about how we can improve the site and make the Festival and the farm greener.”

Glastonbury is known as one of the greenest music festivals. It runs stages on renewable electricity – including the pioneering Croissant Neuf venue which is powered totally by solar power.

There are onsite recycling facilities and an army of volunteers who sort through abandoned tents and other waste to see what can be re-used.

There is even a “green police force” to stop festival-goers committing eco-sins such as dropping litter or using farm hedges as toilets.

Mr Eavis said the giant solar system will build on the festival’s already impressive green credentials.

He said: “We have had renewable energy at the Festival since 1979, and we have tried to do more and more each year. This is going to be a flagship project which will make a huge difference to our carbon footprint not just during the festival but throughout the whole year.”

When they are operating at peak capacity – on a clear, sunny day – the panels will generate 200 kW of power. Only the Co-Operative Group’s CIS tower in Manchester is larger, with a peak output of 380 kW.

Because farms are power-hungry beasts most of the electricity from the solar panels will be used onsite, to run equipment such as milking pumps.

The remainder will be exported to the National Grid.

Mr Eavis decided to press ahead with the installation this week after the Government unveiled new payments for green electricity.

The new “Clean Energy Cashback” scheme means the Worthy Farm system will get 29 pence per unit of power it makes, and generate a total of about £60,000 worth of electricity a year.

Mr Eavis expects the system will pay for itself in eight or nine years, after which the money it makes will be extra income for the farm.

By creating clean electricity with almost no harmful emissions, the system will save about 100 tonnes of CO2 a year – the total annual carbon footprint of 10 people in the UK.

North Somerset renewable energy installer Solar Sense has won the task of installing what will surely be one of the highest profile solar installations in the land. A team of 10 workers will start to install the panels on August 1, providing planning permission is granted and site surveys confirm the roofing on the barns is strong enough to hold the panels.