More than 5000 Jersey homes could be solar-powered in the next six years.

Jersey Electricity has launched its latest ambition towards clean energy.

Currently, solar only accounts for less than 0.5% of the island's energy generation, but the JE Solar 5000 initiative hopes to boost this to 6.5% of the energy share by 2030.

Powering 5000 homes is the equivalent of generating 36MWp of electricity from various solar voltaic sources – enough to power around 10% of housing in Jersey.

The company says the energy could be generated from its ground-mount solar sites, which are larger scale and divert electricity back to the grid for all customers to use.

The first ground-mount community-scale installation is being built in St Clement and is due to start generating power later this year.

The company is looking for more sites and partners to expand ground-mounted solar.

In addition, JE says rooftop solar has been installed on several commercial premises.

Plus it says, later this year, it will begin to offer solar energy generated by domestic households who have solar panels on their rooftops.

.JE’s COO Mark Preece said: “Solar energy makes sense for Jersey – we have sunshine in abundance – so it should form a growing part of our energy strategy alongside the low carbon electricity we import from France.

"We have set our ambitions high to power 5000 homes through a mixture of different types of locally-generated solar energy.

"We are confident that we have great traction with several ground-mount solar sites either starting construction or through the initial stages of planning and a strong portfolio of commercial rooftop partnerships.

"We are also finalising our domestic solar offer which we’re excited to launch later this year.

Mr Preece says Solar 5000 should be a 'collective ambition' for the island.

Solar power remains more expensive than the power the island imports from France via undersea cable.

JE says the imported power will remain the dominant source of energy 'to keep costs at acceptable, sustainable levels for customers'.