Scottish Water begin their first solar storage project

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Today we bring exciting news that Scottish Water, after 46 solar projects and 20 wind power projects, has unveiled plans for its first combined solar power and battery storage facility. 

The £2 million project will be located close to Perth’s Waste Water Treatment Works on the River Tay and will be the largest single solar energy investment ever for the publicly-owned water company’s commercial subsidiary, Scottish Water Horizons.

The project will see just over 2,500 solar panels installed on land close to the treatment works, with the two areas having a combined generation capacity of just over 1MW. Crucially it will be the first Scottish Water solar project that will also include battery storage, with the presence of four vanadium flow batteries (VFBs) that will offer the potential for storing up to 0.8MWh of energy. 


The addition of battery storage to this site should allow for around 95% of the renewable energy that is generated to be used directly on the site. The project is expected to be operational sometime in 2021, cutting the treatment works’ carbon footprint by somewhere in the region of 160 tonnes of CO2 per annum. As well as the environmental benefit, the project should also reduce annual energy bills at the site by 40%.

Donald MacBrayne, business development manager at Scottish Water Horizons, said: “This project represents an exciting step forward in our work towards Scottish Water’s ambitious goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Perth is right at the heart of Scotland and has its own emerging ambition to become the most sustainable small city in Europe. We hope this project and Scottish Water’s continuing journey towards net zero can support that goal.”

Environment & Climate Change Secretary Roseanna Cunningham, added further thoughts, saying: “Innovative projects like this not only help us reach our goal of zero-emission by 2045, but also help to support Scotland’s manufacturing industry, creating green jobs and helping green recovery from COVID-19.”

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