‘World’s loneliest house’ powered by solar panels from Lee-on-Solent firm
The remote lodge in Iceland now has solar panels thanks to the Hampshire company
An isolated house on an Icelandic island, often called the ‘loneliest house in the world’, now has electricity thanks to a solar panel company from Lee-on-Solent.
The hunting lodge is the only building on Elliðaey, one of Iceland’s Westman Islands. It has no power lines and cannot use a generator without having to lug fuel across open water and up the side of a cliff.
However, the hunting lodge now has two solar panels to fuel it, thanks to the help of Simon Smith, the director of SA Energy, a solar panel company in Lee-on-Solent.
“I was approached by EcoFLow who manufactured a battery and panel system for the house,” said Mr Smith. “When they were installing them on the lodge, I went along to help out.
“We had to get the panels up the side of the cliff, we had to climb up the rock face.”
Elliðaey has no connection to the local grid, so the lodge runs on the power it generates and stores on site. Because daylight hours vary so much between summer and winter, the system needed batteries to hold the energy the panels collect. They now provide enough electricity for cooking, heating and lighting, even when there is little or no sunlight.
The Elliðaey Hunting Association built the lodge in 1953 to give members a base and a place to stay.
“The lodge used to be a place where they hunted puffins, which I never knew before I went there,” said Mr Smith.
“Now, a conservation group stays there when they monitor and maintain habitats, and it's only in use six to eight months a year. The weather can be very extreme in the winter months.”
Mr Smith’s company, SA Energy, has also helped with off-grid energy systems across the world, including closer to home projects like Cameron’s Cottage RSPB house in the New Forest. They also install domestic solar panels on houses.
You can find out more about SA Energy here.