Scottish Water adds 1,300 solar panels at one of its water treatment works

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We're always happy to see different industries make use of solar energy as a way of moving towards a greener future, so it was great to read recently that Scottish Water have spent somewhere in the region of £450,000 adding around 1,300 solar panels to one of their water treatment sites, servicing a significant portion of Scotland.

Scotland is really setting a standard for many countries in the world with its desire to move towards net zero emissions as soon as possible, with Scottish Water playing a key part in that, with their commitment to carbon neutrality extending not only to how they generate and use power for their sites, but also how they operate their vehicles, with their publicly-stated aim to operate a fully emissions-free fleet of vehicles by 2040.


Such is Scottish Water’s commitment to renewable energy, it actually has a commercial subsidiary named Scottish Water Horizons, an entity that works to invest in renewable technologies, with this current project being its third-biggest to date. This solar panel installation is estimated to provide around one third of the energy needed at the Loch Ashie treatment works, serving Inverness, Nairn and their surrounding towns.

The manager of this Scottish Water Horizons solar panel project, Mr Ian Piggott, shared the following thoughts on its significance; “The site at Inverness provides a perfect opportunity to install a scheme of this scale, which will have a significant positive impact both on the environmental and financial cost of providing clear, fresh and great-tasting drinking water to around 86,000 customers in the Highland Capital and beyond."

“Harnessing solar energy is just one of the many ways we are helping to tackle climate change and contributing to Scottish Water’s ambitious target to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.”


The expectation is that Scottish Water Horizons will be involved in many future projects for their own sites and others, each of them having a key impact on moving Scotland towards its net-zero future. What a great aim!

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