Anglian Water is stepping up its investment in solar PV. It more than doubled generation in 2021 to 7.2GWh from 14 solar PV installations at its sites – an increase from 3GWh in 2020 – and completed the largest solar photovoltaic array on Anglian Water land to date, an 11.6MWp array at Grafham Water.
Next year it said it would more than double generation again, with more than 16GWh from solar. The water and wastewater company’s biggest source of renewable energy is still its fleet of combined heat and power engines (CHP) which generated 114GWh in 2021. It is exploring energy storage through a pathfinder project at Little Melton. Last year it partnered with Oasthouse Ventures to build two low carbon greenhouses warmed by warm water from waste treatment facilities. Using £120 million of funding from major UK pension funds the two greenhouses, in Suffolk and Norfolk, produce 12% of the UK’s tomato supply, reducing the carbon footprint of the produce by 75%.