Almost 100 solar panels are to be fitted to the roof of the accommodation block at residential study centre Hooke Court, near Beaminster.

Dorset Council has approved an application for 98 photovoltaic solar panels at the Higher Street Lane building.

The former country house, which dates back to the 17th century, was a school for boys from 1946 until 1992 and is set within the Area for Outstanding Natural Beauty within six hectares of mature park and woodland.

The site is now used as a study centre for schools with residential courses, a wedding venue and a pre-school nursery.

The accommodation block is a more modern building, dating from the 1960s, and separate from the main house.

Proposals now agreed by Dorset Council will allow the fitting of the panels onto the flat roof of the two storey building – capable of producing 33KW of power.

A planning agent's report to the council said the panels should generate enough power to run the kitchen, laundry, the Court and North Wing.

"It will also be a priority in the retrofitting of the existing building to embrace embodied energy and reduce carbon emissions by upgrading insulation, introducing natural ventilation and modern services," said the report.

"These buildings are already heated by a biomass boiler situated to the south east of the site," said a report with the planning request to the council.

"This solar system has been sited where it is least visible from ground level but provides the maximum energy saving which does not detract from Hooke Court."

Council officers agreed that the panels were unlikely to be seen and would do no harm to the setting of the main listed building.