Council works on £1.5m bright idea to build solar farm next to cemetery
IT COULD GENERATE 1 MW OF ELECTRICITY WHICH WOULD BE SOLD...PAYING OFF INVESTMENT IN 10 YEARS
DERBYSHIRE Dales District Council is looking to build a £1.5 million solar farm on land next to the town’s sewage treatment plant, tip, cemetery and allotments.
The authority has been working on the idea of creating a solar farm capable of generating one megawatt of electricity on land off Watery Lane in Ashbourne.
A report, which was due to be debated shortly after the News Telegraph went to press, outlines that a solar farm could be built on a twohectare plot of land which sits just above the town’s allotments and next to the Mayfield Road cemetery.
The authority has so far spent £14,600 on a feasibility study carried out by APSE Energy to assess potential sites and the development they could host, and councillors will be asked to consider spending a further £40,000 taking the scheme to its next stage.
The report says electricity generated from the Watery Lane site could be sold to Severn Trent, which operates the neighbouring sewage treatment works, and already has a small solar array.
It details that solar panels could be installed on the site – pending a planning application and subsequent approval – by the end of 2024.
The scheme could cost £1.038 million to build, with the plan to fund this with a 20-year loan from the Public Works Loans Board and paid back with an interest rate of 3.63 per cent (which may change due to market conditions).
The preferred option listed by APSE Energy appears to be for the council to sell the electricity generated from the solar farm directly to Severn Trent for a potential £109,296 in the first year at 12p per kilowatt.
The report says the council could pay off its investment in the site in 10 years, if these figures were to be maintained. This would see the authority make a profit of £3.5 million over 30 years, it says.
The same report mentions the fact that a review of the town’s cemetery in 2017 suggested the existing site could provide space for 11 years of burials, and that more recent studies have indicated there is space for between eight and nine years.
The review suggested that the site now earmarked for solar panels could be used to provide additional cemetery space if developed, but highlighted to members that a solar farm was a “temporary development” which could be removed following its useful life.
The amount of electricity generated from the site each year would be in excess of all the power the council used in 2019, though it says this could rise with the shift away from using gas to heat buildings.
A council aim to combat climate change was to generate two megawatts of electricity, with this proposed Ashbourne site only set to generate half of that.
It says it could look to partner with another council or company to buy additional land, as well as the prospect of developing car park solar panel installations.
The £40,000 councillors were being asked to approve last night would pay for consultancy work to investigate outstanding issues with the proposed Ashbourne scheme, including a grid connection and the formation of a planning application.
The council says that due to the “potential conflicts of interest” and “internal resource pressures”, it would look to hire a company to carry out the planning application work.
An agreement with Severn Trent would also need to be fleshed out and secured.