Work on a £1.2 million solar panel scheme in Speyside is now complete.

The project was delivered by contractor Absolute Solar and Wind on behalf of Scottish Water Horizons.

The scheme features a total of 4,800 photovoltaic (PV) panels at two adjacent borehole sites in Speyside and is the biggest investment to date by the company in this renewable technology.

Both sites will generate a total of 1GWh of energy per annum, whilst saving 437 CO2eq tonnes of carbon every year. Overall, the PV panels will help provide power to pump water to the Badentinan water treatment works nearby.

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Ian Piggott, Scottish Water Horizons Project Delivery Manager, said: "This £1.2 million project has taken around three months to complete on site from start to finish.

"Our construction phase started in early June this year, with some works starting a month later due to the presence of badgers in the vicinity of site. However, we managed our programme such that there was no negative impact on our overall delivery timescales.

"Absolute Solar and Wind installed 2,900 panels at the north borehole site, and 1,900 at the south borehole. These are now in operation and will generate renewable energy long into the future."

Graham Provest, Managing Director of Absolute Solar and Wind, added: "As a leading energy efficiency business, Absolute is proud to work so closely with the Scottish Water team on another successful project as part of their on-going framework requirements.

"This particular installation had some challenges with grid connectivity that were overcome by our highly skilled technical team. We look forward to future projects and to contributing to a low carbon Scotland."

(LM/JP)