Yorkshire Water’s strategy to generate at least 40% of its own operational energy took a major step forward recently with the switch-on of five solar farm sites at Filey, Malton, Belle Vue, Monk Bretton and Harrogate South.

Photo: Solar site at Filey STW

These are the first solar energy sites planned across the region that will contribute towards the utility’s ambitious target to generate 40% of its own energy by 2030.

Yorkshire Water currently generates 18% of its own energy from a variety of renewable sources including wind, hydro-power and combined heat and power (CHP) engines burning biogas, produced at its anaerobic digestion sites.

Solar power is an important part of Yorkshire Water’s self-generated energy strategy, with several sites in various stages of development and construction across the region. These are part of the region-wide blueprint to power more Yorkshire Water sites using renewable power.

Daniel Oxley, commercial manager, Yorkshire Water, said:

“We currently use 590GWh of energy per year at Yorkshire Water; 18% of this is self-generated. The first phase of solar deployments represents a significant, multi-million-pound investment by our partners, Downing Renewable Developments, and forms an important element of our overall energy strategy, contributing about 3.5% of our total power needs on completion.

“Treating clean water, getting it to customers’ properties and treating wastewater before returning it safely to the environment uses a lot of energy. This is one of our largest operational costs, so it is important we make use of technology and the space available on our sites, to reduce our reliance on purchasing energy.

“Generating our own renewable energy also reduces our exposure to energy price volatility and reduces the operational costs of our sites, which provides better value for money to our customers. This project is a significant step in reaching our aim of carbon net zero target, as all self-generated electricity will be consumed on site by Yorkshire Water.”

Fully up and running, the Filey solar site will generate in the region of 169 MWh per annum, the same as powering 21% of the total of the wastewater treatment site’s energy. At the same time this will remove approximately 39 tonnes equivalent of CO2 from Yorkshire Water’s operational carbon footprint. During the peak of the long, hot summer, the site ran entirely on solar energy.

As one of the county’s largest private landowners, Yorkshire Water will use existing assets to grow self-generation sites from new-build renewables to create cleaner, cheaper electricity. This will be through a mix of anaerobic digestion, wind, solar and hydro power. The target of up to 40% of non-grid power created through renewable sources by 2030 will be achieved by realising:

Multi-phase rollout of both ground-mounted and roof-mounted solar;

New wind deployments;

Hydroelectric power; and

Collaborating with neighbouring power plants and landowners.