Two water treatment works have turned to green energy to boost Scottish Water's pledge to reach net zero emissions five years ahead of Scotland's 2045 target.

The Camphill facility at Kilbirnie in North Ayrshire, and Glenconvinth, near Beauly in the Highlands, are the latest sites to have solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels installed.

Scottish Water Horizons, our commercial subsidiary, has invested £210,000 installing 670 PV panels at Camphill, which serves around 40,000 people in local communities.

The carbon reducing technology will offset 14 per cent of the electricity required to operate the facility, with the new solar PV system generating 0.145GWHr of energy on an annual basis – equivalent to powering 40 homes for a year.

The £250,000 renewable energy project at Glenconvinth has been completed, with 674 solar panels in place at the facility which supplies drinking water to 5,500 local customers.

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Around a third of the site's electrical needs are now met via renewable energy, with the new solar PV system generating 0.175GWHr of electricity on an annual basis – enough energy to power more than 50 homes for a year.

It is the latest solar power scheme to be delivered by Scottish Water Horizons, which works to encourage growth and invest in renewable technologies.

Roddy Speirs, Project Manager at Scottish Water Horizons, said: "These carbon-reducing solar schemes further demonstrate Scottish Water's drive to tackle climate change and become a zero carbon user of electricity.

"The energy needed to provide customers with essential water and waste water services makes Scottish Water the largest single user of electricity in the country so we are absolutely committed to finding alternative ways to develop and accelerate green energy schemes to reduce our carbon footprint.

"Customers in North Ayrshire and Inverness-shire can now enjoy their water with lower impact on the environment than ever before, while the technology installed at these locations will help drive down operating costs at the works, helping keep household bills low."

Renewable energy experts FES Support Services and Absolute delivered the Camphill and Glenconvinth projects respectively on behalf of Scottish Water Horizons.

More than 70 of Scottish Water's water and waste water treatment works are now either self-sufficient or partly sufficient in their power requirements.

Both of these projects contribute to the Scottish Government's ambitious new targets for Scottish Water which sets out that we will generate or host three times the energy we use by 2030.

(MH/JG)