Construction is scheduled to start this month at the Southwick Estate, an agricultural land near the Hampshire town of Fareham.

Expected to generate enough energy for 11,000 average-sized homes, the facility will feature 175,000 panels and will commence energy generation by the end of March 2015.

The firms plan to use solar-powered and biodiesel generators during the plant’s construction.

Solarcentury CEO Frans van den Heuvel said: "Our responsible approach to building solar farms, together with Primrose Solar’s continued investment over the lifetime of the project, is really going to make Southwick solar farm an environmentally robust site.

"Our waste and energy management programme will see a number of new initiatives employed during the build that we’re looking to roll out across all of our future sites."

Primrose Solar CEO Giles Clark said: "We are excited about setting a new environmental standard for building Southwick solar farm, working together with Solarcentury, a perfect choice for the build because of our shared values."