Essex County Council has launched a soft market testing exercise to assess the feasibility of placing solar farms on its council-owned landholdings - the Council has made a commitment to accelerate the county’s transition to renewable and sustainable energy.
The Council has set a target for its core estate to reach net zero by 2030. While electricity consumption is projected to decrease over the coming years through investment in energy efficiency and estate rationalisation, the Council also has a commitment, through its renewable electricity strategy, to access 100% of its energy requirement from renewable sources and to maximise opportunities for both onsite and offsite renewable electricity generation.
As part of this commitment, the Council is keen to explore opportunities to develop solar generation on land assets that it owns. This could include both private wire and grid connected opportunities, with the potential for the Council to act as an off-taker for any projects that come forward.
Essex County Council has reviewed its landholdings and identified four potential sites for development consideration. The sites have all undergone various land assessments to determine risk.
The Council now wants to determine the feasibility of developing ground mounted solar farms on the sites and is inviting interested parties to respond to a Q&A pack prepared as part of the soft market testing exercise. The responses will be reviewed, and shortlisted parties invited for a virtual Q&A session on the 30th or 31st January 2023. A The opportunity is a soft market test exercise only at this stage to allow the Council to ascertain interest from the market, investigate potential options, and consider the best route for a potential future contract opportunity.
Deadline to submit soft market test responses is Friday 13th January 2023 at 12:00pm – click here to access the Prior Information Notice documentation.
Sulzer has launched a new global Center of Excellence (CoE) for Water Treatment Solutions - the CoE consolidates Sulzer’s wastewater treatment expertise in a unified and global manner.
“SAS (Surplus Activated Sludge) is a bit weird and 
Owen Mace has taken over as Director of the British Plastics Federation (BPF) Plastic Pipes Group on the retirement of Caroline Ayres. He was previously Standards and Technical Manager for the group.
PureTec Separations, the Ledbury-based water treatment engineering firm, has appointed Dan Norman as its new Sales Manager – Water Process Systems, supporting the company’s continued growth in the UK and international markets.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.
Find out more about the remarkable career opportunities on offer at WSP - scroll down to watch the inspirational video.