Landmark project set for major investment in Peterborough

A LANDMARK contract which could see up to 200 million invested into the installation of solar panels across Peterborough is set to be approved by the city council.

In what could be a momentous step in the city’s ambitions to be the UK’s environment capital, Peterborough City Council is set to sign a contract valued at anywhere up to 200 million with Mears Limited to supply, install and maintain a swathe of photovoltaic (PV) panels at sites across the city and beyond.

The contract starts from this month and will last until December 2015, although the next few months could see a large number of installations to get the panels in place before the Government’s cash payouts for solar energy generation decrease in April.

No specific sites have been identified yet but the council is expected to install panels on city schools, social houses, council-owned buildings and has not even ruled out installing larger-scale solar farms on empty parcels of land.

Councillor David Seaton, cabinet member for resources, has said the investment would be funded primarily by borrowing, however the council would only install panels when it was sure of turning a profit.

He said: “I think it is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver council services within the reduced budgets so we need to look at other ways of bringing in money to the council to pay for these services.

“But we are going to be cautious and only spend money if we are sure we can pay back that capital investment.

“However, this could absolutely be a great step forward in our environment capital aspirations and both myself and environment capital cabinet member Samantha Dalton are very excited about this.”

The council has already shown its ambition to harness solar power at the former Freemans unit, in Ivatt Way, Westwood, with a number of panels being installed.

Schools in Peterborough, should every one have panels installed, could benefit from investment of some 10 million.

A council decision notice for the contract stated that the schools’ PV project would have an overall contract value of 1.27 million per 10 schools, with there currently being around 65 primary and secondary schools in the city.

As well as reducing the cost of heating and electricity on buildings, the council hopes to return a profit by selling excess energy to the National Grid.

A spokesman for Mears said: “We are delighted to have won this contract.”

Solar panel tariff debate

THE past year has seen a boom in the installation of solar panels on both business and council units as well as private homes.

This is because the “feed-in tariff”, the money earned for generating your own energy, will be reduced by the Government from April.

The decision to reduce the tariff has been criticised by solar panel providers as it will cost jobs as well as prove counter-productive in the push for the use of more renewable energy sources.

Photovoltaic panels are made of semi-conducting materials.

When sunlight strikes the surface of the panel, a direct electric current is produced.

This DC current is then converted to AC electricity using an inverter.