Consisting of 20,000 solar PV panels, the solar plant will meet over 70% of the electricity demand at AmeyCespa’s Mechanical Biological Treatment plant near the village of Waterbeach. It will generate up to 4552MWh annually, enough power to supply over 1200 homes. Lightsource will supply the electricity to the waste management company under a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

“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” said Frans van den Heuvel, CEO of Solarcentury. “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.”

He added: “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.”

Written by Robin Whitlock