Rochdale builds first council solar farm
ROCHDALE Borough Council has started work on what it claims is the first publicly-owned solar farm in Greater Manchester, as part of an ambition to become the “greenest” authority in the country.
It is building a 250kw solar farm on an acre of contaminated land behind Rochdale Leisure Centre, in Entwistle Road which will operate for up to 25 years.
The authority is also adding 100kw rooftop solar panels to Heywood Sports Village.
The electricity generated from both sites will be sold back to Link4Life, the body that runs sports and cultural services in the borough. The solar farms are being built by East Sussex-based Southern Solar.
Council leader Richard Farnell said: “Faced with making savings of £51m over the next two years, we needed to come up with imaginative solutions in tough economic times and come up with an alternative as traditional energy sources become scarcer.
“Options for this site were limited, due to its former use as a waste disposal site and contamination present, so the solar farm has allowed the council to turn this land from a liability to a productive asset.”
As part of the Greater Manchester Climate Change Strategy, Rochdale has agreed to a 48% CO2 emission cut by 2020. It said its annual electricity bill is around £2.8m.
