News Article
UK First: Solar Powered Waste Treatment Plant
Lightsource Renewable Energy Limited, in collaboration with Solarcentury, have completed a 5MW utility scale solar plant close to the village of Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire.
The solar plant will provide enough "˜green' electricity during daylight hours to power over 70% of AmeyCespa's Mechanical Biological Treatment plant in Waterbeach, providing a sustainable, local energy solution.
Located at the hamlet of Chittering, this 20,000 panel solar park is built in a discreet location and is not visible from the main road. The plant will generate up to 4,552MWh annually, an optimum level achieved with an experienced engineering team and use of only the highest quality materials. This is sufficient energy to power the equivalent of over 1,200 homes continuously without any noise or pollution.
Frans van den Heuvel, CEO of Solarcentury said: "We are all incredibly excited about this project. Rather than the plant being connected to export into the grid, there has been significant engineering work to provide 3km of cabling from the plant running directly to local waste management company AmeyCespa."
He added: "Unlike most utility scale ground mounted solar plants in the country, this solar plant prioritises the use of electricity by AmeyCespa's facilities first, with minimal excess energy being fed back into the national grid. We expect to see many more commercial projects of this nature in the future as organisations become increasingly aware of fixed, low cost solar power."
Lightsource supplies this "˜green' energy to the waste management company through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 25 years. This method of energy supply significantly benefits high electricity users like AmeyCespa, not only by cutting electricity costs, but also providing better control and predictability on budget forecasting.
