Exeter City Council's 1.2 MW solar site takes a step forwards

• Exeter City Council has actually taken an advance in creating its first solar-plus-storage farm, with job now underway at the site.

The project will consist of a 1.2 MW ground-mounted solar array that will certainly be co-located with an 1MW/2MWh battery. This will have a separate link that will allow it to give renewable energy right to the council's Operations Depot, near the site on Exton Road.

It will be improved an inert land fill site at Water Lane as part of a ₤ 3.5 million system to assist Exeter reach internet zero by 2030. Of this, nearly ₤ 1.6 million is coming from a give from the European Regional Development Fund.

Work to get rid of the land started prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the first land scrub finished by the council under the guidance of ecologists from the Devon Wildlife Consultancy. Job is now proceeding, with 3,702 solar PV components, two battery storage space containers as well as an electricity switch area readied to be mounted on the site.

Rachel Sutton, replacement leader and also portfolio owner for Climate and also Culture at the council, said: "This is a really great initiative which reveals that the City Council is leading by instance, as well as buying projects, as we move in the direction of a carbon neutral future.

" To be able to power our fleet of electric automobiles with power we have produced from solar power is a superb instance of the innovation that will certainly be required throughout the city if Exeter is to satisfy its aspiration of coming to be an internet no carbon city by 2030."

Already, the council has been associated with a variety of solar projects, consisting of installing over 2MW of solar PV on its estate. It has been setting up a network of electrical vehicle cost points around the city given that 2014 too, consisting of two solar carports positioned in the centre of the city.