An artist’s impression of United Utilities’12,000 panel, £3.5m floating solar PV farm on the Godley Reservoir in Hyde, Manchester – now just starting to be installed. United Utilities
Water company United Utilities is to build Europe’s biggest floating solar pholtovoltaic (solar PV) power system on a reservoir near Manchester. This 3MW installation will be the second largest such venture in the world and it aims to cut energy costs. By James Hunt:
Work has started on installing this 12,000 panel, £3.5m floating solar PV farm on the Godley Reservoir in Hyde and it will be Europe’s biggest floating solar farm, second only in the world behind a Japanese venture that we reported on in Voltimum in September last year (use the link below to learn more about this). In that article, we asked rhetorically whether the UK could do the same. Well, now it has.
The Manchester development – which will have a solar PV array of 44,500m2 – will also be only the second of its kind in the UK, much bigger than an 800 panel pilot scheme built in Berkshire last year, and it has been designed to generate 2.7GWh of electricity each year.
The project is scheduled to start operation by Christmas and United Utilities says that it will help keep ‘future water bills low’ as it will provide the local water treatment works with about a third of its energy requirement. United Utilities also claims that it will help the company reach its target to generate 35% of its in-house power needs via renewable sources.
Keeping to schedule to avoid Government cuts
It is important, says the company, that the Christmas schedule is kelp to, in order to avoid being affected by the Government’s planned cuts to solar subsidies. This scheme is currently eligible for subsidies of almost 6p/kWh, but DECC’s proposal is to cut the rate to about 1p per kWh, under plans which have caused widespread anger in the UK solar industry. Indeed, the UK solar industry has warned that the government’s plans slash subsidies by over 80% will have a devastating impact.
The benefits of floating solar PV arrays are several. As well as providing power on-site to water companies (and work for solar PV manufacturers and installers), they also supply solar power without adversely affecting agricultural land. Furthermore, the solar PV arrays help reduce reservoir evaporation, while the cooling effect of the water proximity can improve the efficiency of solar PV cell operation.
United Utilities is also reported to be looking at the possibility of setting up another floating solar PV farm in Lancaster.
