Halton Borough Council's story
The Council completed construction of a 1MW Solar Farm, connected by private wire to the DCBL Stadium, on the former St Michael's Golf Course in September 2020.
The project will increase the total installed capacity to 5.1MW and connect the additional solar PV generators via a micro grid to four council buildings. It will use battery storage and provide the necessary infrastructure to enable the electrification of the Council's vehicle fleet and support electrifying the heat loads in the buildings in the future. The Project has been supported by the LCR Combined Authority and ERDF.
Useful learnings from Halton Borough Council
Cost setting in some areas was based on initial desktop studies. This caused some variance in costs as the more detailed work was undertaken and after the ERDF grant had been secured. Ultimately there was no significant detriment to the project but it highlights the importance of developing a clear and accurate cost profile in the early stages of the project.
We advise establishing frameworks for procurement at the very beginning. This is something we will do on future projects as it may improve total project costs.
Halton Borough Council's metrics
kWh of renewable energy produced per year (900,000).