ANGLIAN Water has finished installing its largest solar array across their operational sites at a Water Recycling Centre in Jaywick, Essex.
Working with renewable energy company HBS, the solar installation is the company’s biggest to date, made up of 3312 solar panels.
The scheme will generate 36% of the site’s energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions by over 300 tonnes in the first year.
At its peak, the site is capable of generating nearly 900 kWp, enough energy to power 200 homes.
David Riley, Head of Carbon Neutrality at Anglian Water, commented on the project: “We supply over seven million customers across the East of England with water and water recycling services and the population continues to grow rapidly – in fact this region is one of the fastest growing in the UK and one that is at risk from climate change.
“Our challenge is to address this increasing demand for services sustainably, and it’s that challenge which underpins our ambitious renewable energy strategy.
“As a large low-lying region, it takes a huge amount of energy to pump and recycle water to put back into the environment.
“As one of the largest energy consumers and emitters in the region, we have an important responsibility to reduce our operational carbon emissions.
“We can achieve this by generating our own renewable energy and we aim to generate 44% of the electricity we need from renewable sources by 2025.”
Earlier this year the water industry came together to sign a Public Interest Commitment. The Commitment is the industry’s pledge to continue to deliver wider benefits to society above and beyond the provision of clean, fresh drinking water and treatment of used water.
One of the commitments made by the industry was to be net zero carbon by 2030, 20 years ahead of the Government’s current target of 2050.
Anglian has already made huge strides towards becoming a net zero carbon business by 2030. Since 2010 the company has made a 58% reduction in capital carbon a 29% reduction in operational carbon.
Mr Riley added: “Our commitment to achieve zero net carbon by 2030 across the water industry signals a significant increase in the momentum, technology and innovation required to tackle such a big challenge.
“Using more sustainable sources of energy to power our operations will form a large part of this work and help us on our journey to being a carbon neutral business.”
