Remote access specialist, Solar Gate Systems, has said that improvements in solar panel technology have created opportunities to install gate automation on any gate up to 7m wide and in any location.

“We have the technology to successfully automate any existing gate, in any outdoor location,” explained Mike Yeats, MD of Oxfordshire-based Solar Gate Systems. “As long as the gate swings freely, we can put solar power to it and make its operation fully automatic.

“We are confident of harnessing, storing and converting more than enough power to run our solar gate mechanisms all year round,”he added. “Our brushless motors are designed to make 1000 openings every day and because our gates can operate successfully in the depths of winter, the longer, brighter days are then easy to manage.”

With the recent rise in on-farm thefts, particularly with GPS precision farming equipment being taken from tractors and machinery, he said now, more than ever, farmers needed to keep their gates firmly closed.

“An open gate is an invitation,” he said. “But with our automated gate mechanisms, we can very easily turn an opportunity into a deterrent. Add to that our Goliath auto-lock – which fails closed should the power feed be cut – and we can provide any rural business with a secure solution.”

The firm has more than seven years’ experience of installing proven solar-powered gate automation systems to many farm drives and remote property entrances around the UK, where mains powered installations are simply too cost-prohibitive to install.

All equipment supplied and installed carries a two-year warranty and where mains power is already available, the firm can also provide hard-wired solutions.