An East Midlands council is looking to develop a £1m solar farm - and hopes it can sell the energy generated to the company that runs the sewage treatment plant next door.
Derbyshire Dales District Council has revealed plans to build its own solar farm on land off Watery Lane in Ashbourne, which also sits next to a tip, cemetery and allotments.
The council had considered putting a permanent Traveller site on the land, though those plans were changed after a decision from Derbyshire County Council to block any land purchases around Ashbourne which could hinder its plans to build a bypass around the town.
A district council report, to be debated on Tuesday, July 26, outlines that a one megawatt solar farm could be built on land off Watery Lane, between the allotments and the cemetery and above the household waste tip.
READ MORE: Ground broken on pharmacy chain’s £20m distribution hub
It has spent £14,600 on a feasibility study carried out by APSE Energy to assess potential sites and the development they could host.
The report says electricity generated from the Watery Lane site could be sold to Severn Trent, which operates the neighbouring sewage treatment works.
It details that solar panels could be installed on the site – pending a planning application and subsequent approval – by the end of 2024.
The scheme could cost £1.038m to build, with the plan to fund this with a 20-year loan from the Public Works Loans Board and paid back with an interest rate of 3.63 per cent (which may change due to market conditions).
Out of the options listed by APSE Energy the preferred choice appears to be for the council to sell the electricity generated from the solar farm directly to Severn Trent for a potential £109,296 in the first year at 12p per kilowatt.
The report says the council could pay off its investment in the site in 10 years, if these figures were to be maintained.
This would see the authority make a profit of £3.5 million over 30 years, it says.
The amount of electricity generated from the site each year would be in excess of all the electricity the council used in 2019, though it says this could rise with the shift away from using gas to heat buildings.
A council aim to combat climate change was to generate two megawatts of electricity, with this proposed Ashbourne site only set to generate half of that. It says it could look to partner with another council or company to buy additional land as well as the prospect of developing car park solar panel installations.
It is now asking councillors to spend a further £40,000 for consultancy work to investigate outstanding issues with the proposed Ashbourne scheme, including a grid connection and the formation of a planning application.
The council says that due to the “potential conflicts of interest” and “internal resource pressures” it would look to hire a company to carry out the planning application work.
An agreement with Severn Trent would also need to be fleshed out and secured.
