Scottish Water start installation of new low-carbon project
Published by Bella Weetch,
Editorial Assistant
Energy Global,
Scottish Water has started work to install a combined solar power and battery storage facility near Perth’s Waste Water Treatment Works at Sleepless Inch on the River Tay, Scotland.
The £2 million project is one of the largest single solar energy investments announced to date by the publicly-owned water company’s commercial subsidiary, Scottish Water Horizons.
The renewable energy generated is expected to provide around a quarter of the electricity needed to treat water that has been used by customers all over the city, enabling it to be safely returned to the environment. 2520 solar panels will be installed on land adjoining the treatment works, with a combined generating capacity of just over 1 MW.
It will be one of the first Scottish Water solar projects to include battery storage, in the form of four vanadium flow batteries, capable of storing up to 0.8 MWh of energy. The project is being developed and constructed by Scottish renewable energy solutions specialists, Absolute Solar and Wind, with the batteries supplied by manufactured by Invinity Energy Systems. It is due to go live in 2021.
The inclusion of battery storage will enable approximately 94% of the renewable power generated to be used on site, with the flow batteries charging from renewable electricity produced when the sun is at its peak and then delivering it to the site when it is most needed, any time of the day or night.
By using this solar power on site instead of exporting to the local grid, the treatment works will cut its carbon footprint by around 160 tpy of CO2 – the equivalent of offsetting 580 000 miles from the average passenger car. It will also help to reduce energy costs at the site by approximately 40% on an ongoing basis.
The Invinity VS3 batteries will be assembled at the company’s manufacturing and testing facility in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland.
In addition to the new photovoltaic panels and batteries, Scottish Water Horizons’ project will also include installation of electric vehicle charging facilities to support the transition of the company’s 1600-vehicle fleet of vans and tankers away from fossil fuels towards clean electricity. The site is located close to the M90, a motorway in Scotland, at a key hub of the transport network.
The company has already delivered 46 solar power projects, as well as 20 wind projects, two biomass projects and a waste water heat recovery project. It also hosts additional renewable generation capacity on land that it owns across Scotland.
For more news and technical articles from the global renewable industry read our latest issue of Energy Global magazine.
Energy Global’s Winter 2020 issue
The Winter issue of Energy Global provides a range of technical articles covering technological advancements and future outlooks in the renewables sector, from companies including CorPower Ocean, Rystad Energy, Black & Veatch, Voltalia, FUERGY, and more.
Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/energy-storage/16122020/scottish-water-start-installation-of-new-low-carbon-project/
You might also like
Sonnedix begins construction of its largest UK solar PV plant
Sonnedix has begun the construction of its 120 MW ground-mounted solar photovoltaic plant, Cowley Complex.