Exeter’s solar farm now powering recycling facility and electric fleet

Megan Haynes

Online News Editor

EXETER'S new solar farm now powers the city’s electric vehicles fleet, recycling centre and offices with the green energy it produces.

The Water Lane Solar Park at Marsh Barton cost £3.5 million to introduce and is now able to produce 1.2MW of clean renewable energy from its 3,700 solar panels. Additionally, the battery facility can store 2MW.

This energy storage will help to provide flexibility between peak generation and peak usage, whilst overall, the site is a crucial step in Exeter City Council’s plan to be net zero by 2030.

The energy produced by the site feeds directly to the Council’s Materials Reclamation Facility and to chargers for the Council’s fleet of electric vehicles (three of which are refuse vehicles).

Although this was an expensive project, the cost savings are expected to be £256,000 per year, and the carbon savings to be 580 tonnes a year (equivalent to the yearly CO2 emissions of 268 home’s energy use). Cllr Duncan Wood, Lead Councillor for Climate Change, commented: “It’s fantastic that we are now generating green energy and using new storage technology to power our fleet as well as the recycling processes at the Material Reclamation Facility and our nearby offices.

“Having our own supply means we can now guarantee that our electric vehicles going around Exeter are running on green electricity. We have also got a lot of electric vans and cars that the Council runs, and we want to ensure that they are charged on green energy.”

He added: “Switching to an electric fleet of vehicles and generating the electricity to power them, is a big step towards the Council being carbon net zero by 2030. This project is leading to a significant reduction in our carbon emissions.”