The floating solar farm will consist of just over 23,000 PV panels, to be floated on the reservoir near Walton-on-Thames, utilising a normally redundant suburban space on the surface. The construction of the project follows an agreement signed by Thames Water, Ennoviga Solar and Lightsource Renewable Energy and upon completion it will cover around a tenth of the reservoir – enough solar panels to fill eight Wembley football pitches. Lightsource, which is managing the installation, has extensive expertise in both ground and roof mounted solar projects.
The renewable electricity generated by the solar farm will help to power the nearby water treatment works, thereby helping to reduce customer utility bills. It will have an installed peak capacity of 6.3 MW and is expected to generate 5.8 million kilowatt hours in its first year. This will be equivalent to the annual consumption of around 1,800 homes.
“Becoming a more sustainable business is integral to our long term strategy and this innovative new project brings us one step closer to achieving our goal – this is the right thing for our customers, the right thing for our stakeholders and most importantly the right thing for the environment” said Thames Water energy manager, Angus Berry.
Nick Boyle, CEO of solar energy company Lightsource, added that the project has presented the company with a fresh set of challenges and that it is constantly evolving new skill sets to ensure all its projects deliver maximum energy generation over the lifetime of the installation.
The floating mounting system for the solar farm has been manufactured by Ciel et Terre International and is the company’s largest project outside of Japan as well as the first one with European bank financing.
In addition to setting a target of generating 33 percent of its own renewable energy by 2020, Thames Water is attempting to become more efficient in order to reduce its reliance on the national grid. It generated 12.5 percent of its electricity from renewable sources over 2014-15, a 4 percent increase on the year before. The company currently has solar panels installed at 41 of its sites.
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