City of London announces £40m solar power purchase deal in UK first
The 15-year deal will see City of London Corporation help fund a 49MW solar farm in Dorset to help power the UK capital's financial district
London's Square Mile could soon be powered with solar energy harvested in the Dorset countryside, thanks to a new £40m power purchase deal announced by the City of London Corporation yesterday.
The purchase power agreement (PPA) - the first in the UK between a renewables developer and a local authority - commits the City of London to buying all the electricity produced by a new-build 95,000-panel solar farm in the county for the next 15 years, in a move it estimates could £3m a year in energy costs.
The 49MW project, which is being developed by French renewables firm Voltalia, is expected to generate enough green electricity to power 15,000 homes, or half the energy required to run the Square Mile's historic Guildhall buildings, the Barbican arts centre and Smithfield market, the Corporation said.
London's financial centre has already been powered by renewables since 2018 through the Corporation's green energy supplier, but the new PPA deal marks the first time it has directly funded the construction of a new renewable energy project to power its operations.
"This is a pioneering scheme which we hope will lead the way for local authorities across the UK," said City of London Corporation sub-committee chair Jamie Ingham Clark. "It means they can play their part in reducing emissions without the risks of owning their own energy firms or infrastructure and without the need for government funding."
It follows hot on the heels of the Corporation's new Climate Action Strategy launched last month, which saw it commit to net zero emissions by 2040 across Square Mile, in a move it estimates could create 800 new green jobs.
This news sourced from www.businessgreen.com
