UK utility Thames Water has completed construction of three photovoltaic (PV) arrays with a combined capacity of 3.7MW at facilities it owns in the south of England.
The project was financed and implemented by the Amsterdam-based Europe Solar Utility (ESU) and Ennoviga Solar. Installing the systems was engineering, procurement and construction contractor B&W Energy.
As work at the sites began before the mid-2011 change in the feed-in tariff the arrays will qualify for the old subsidy of 30.7 pence per kWh. It is set to save the company around £100,000 a year from its electricity bill.
John Gilbert, head of carbon and energy management for Thames Water, said, 'We snuck in under the wire on this one, keeping alive our goal to become Britain's biggest on-site producer and industrial user of solar power, and further hedging ourselves from future upward fluctuations in the mainstream, non-renewable energy markets.This means we will spend a little bit less of our customers' money on energy each year.'
Patrick Charignon, CEO of ESU, added, 'ESU provided the finance and the project management expertise to progress this project against very tight deadlines and a changing regulatory environment. It is to the credit of all involved that the project has been a success and Thames Water can now benefit from the clean, renewable power it produces. Longer term the UK government's proposed cuts to the feed-in-tariff have put the future of projects of this scale in doubt. However, utilities may still gain the benefits of solar PV through installations built around long-term power purchase agreements of the type used in this project.'