A £300,000 renewable energy project has been completed at Helensburgh's Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW), aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the town's wastewater treatment processes.

The project involved the installation of 384 ground-mounted solar panels at the WWTW site. These panels are projected to generate approximately 0.21 GWh of electricity annually, equivalent to the energy needed to boil over 930,000 kettles.

This green energy will meet 26% of the site's energy requirements and is expected to save 43 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year. Additionally, a portion of the electricity generated will be sold back to the national grid.

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The project was spearheaded by Scottish Water Horizons, the commercial subsidiary of the publicly owned utility, and delivered by R&A Group.

Brian James, Scottish Water Horizons Project Manager, expressed his satisfaction with the project's completion: “We're delighted to have completed work on this solar project and to have added Helensburgh WWTW to our growing portfolio of sites which are powered in part by some form of renewable energy. These projects are key to helping decarbonise the vital processes we all rely on to treat our water and waste water across Scotland."

George O'Sullivan, Local Scottish Water Operations Team Leader, also commented on the benefits of the scheme: “Treating waste water is an energy intensive process and it is great that a quarter of the power we use at Helensburgh WWTW is now made up of green energy. The scheme helps to maximise the space available at the site and takes us that bit closer to our net zero targets."

Over the past three years, Scottish Water has installed 14.4 GWh of solar energy across its various sites, adding to the 9.6 GWh installed in the preceding 12 years. This project in Helensburgh represents the latest step in Scottish Water's ongoing efforts to reduce its carbon emissions through renewable energy generation.