The park offering holidays in luxury static caravans and glamping pods as well as touring and camping pitches now powers the whole site with its very own Solar Array Panel System.
The two-year project is the brainchild of Christopher Eastwood who owns the park with his wife Maureen. The scheme is the first big scale solar panel four tier ground mounted array system in the UK. Energy from the sun is converted into electricity and this is then used to power all the facilities on the site. Excess energy is supplied back to the National Grid.
Solar energy fully supplies the park with electricity including all the facilities, indoor heated swimming pool, sauna and jacuzzi.
The park also has its own fresh water bore hole, installed by the owners, which provides Woodovis with its own private water supply from the surrounding land.
This drastically reduces its carbon emissions and is a great sustainable natural water source.
‘Our commitment to environmental sustainability is ever growing but we are so proud of being one step closer to making our holiday park fully environmentally friendly,’ said Christopher. ‘We are the first holiday park in the surrounding area to do this and it is something we are extremely proud of.
‘At Woodovis we try to make sustainability a natural part of the way the business is run. The beauty of our park and surrounding areas is one of the main reasons guests come here – we want to sustain that for generations to come.’
Woodovis Park a true family affair, with the Eastwoods’ daughter Sophie Ell and her husband Anthony joining them in running the park with a team of staff. And as Sophie explains, it is her dad Christopher who is the driver behind the park’s impressive green credentials, a process which started long before the solar panel project with his vision of making every aspect of the running of the park.
‘He is passionate about sustainability and renewable energy,’ she said. ‘It is about supporting the environment, because we are close to the Tamar Valley and the AONB. A lot of holiday parks are a drain on resources but he wanted to be giving to Tavistock and the area not taking away.’
Her parents had previously owned a scrapyard in Birmingham and the family bought Woodovis Park in 2017 and moved to West Devon. Since then, their efforts to provide luxury outdoor holidays with the minimum of impact on their beautiful environment have won them a string of awards.
These include a gold VisitEngland award for excellence in 2016 and a gold David Bellamy Award for encouraging wildlife to flourish on the park. Their commitment is outlined on the website, with everything from LED lightbulbs to the big things, like energy and water, where the site really proves that going green starts in your own backyard.