Solar panels help water treatment works go green
Green energy is helping to power a Scottish Water facility in Campbeltown.
A £94,000 investment made by Scottish Water’s commercial subsidiary, Scottish Water Horizons, has seen 174 roof-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) panels installed at Campbeltown Water Treatment Works.
Once treated, water from the facility is delivered to around 3,923 residential and business properties in the area.
This carbon-reducing technology will offset 16 per cent of the electricity required to operate the facility, with the new solar PV system generating 0.05GWHr of energy on an annual basis – that’s the same amount of energy needed to boil around 5,000 kettles and save 13 CO2 equivalent tonnes of carbon per annum.
Ian Piggott, project manager at Scottish Water Horizons, led the project delivery. He said: ‘We’re happy to announce the successful completion of this project which was delivered by renewable energy solutions specialists Absolute Solar and Wind on behalf of Scottish Water Horizons.
‘PV power is instrumental in helping to tackle climate change and reducing our carbon footprint and schemes like this go a long way towards helping us to achieve that.’
An electric vehicle charging point was also installed to accompany the renewables scheme, supporting the transition of Scottish Water’s fleet of vans away from fossil fuels to clean energy.
Morag Maclaurin, Scottish Water operations team leader for the north area, said: ‘Sustainable solutions such as this are great news for the environment and also for our customers.
‘Water in the Campbeltown area is now being supplied with a lower carbon impact than ever before, helping local communities become greener and more sustainable.’
The PV scheme in Campbeltown joins a long list of schemes already installed at many treatment works and other Scottish Water assets across Scotland.
To date, 9.2 megawatts of PV power has been installed at 47 sites, generating 7.2 gigawatt hours of renewable energy every year – that’s equivalent to powering 1,900 homes.
Scottish Water has committed to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040 with an interim target to host or self-generate three times its annual electricity consumption by 2030.
Currently more than 76 of Scottish Water’s water and waste water treatment works are now either self-sufficient or partly sufficient in their power requirements.