Cambridgeshire Energy Projects

Stanground closed landfill solar farm

Cambridgeshire County Council is working with Bouygues Energies & Services Ltd to design and build a Solar Farm Plus Battery Energy Storage Site in Stanground.

The proposed location is on an old landfill site, which was formally closed in 1992 and remained in Cambridgeshire County Council’s ownership as an ongoing waste management liability. The site is located between the A1139 Fletton Parkway, Stanham Way and the A605.

The site has undergone screening for its potential to host clean energy projects, and it is well placed in terms of topography, access to the electricity distribution grid and proximity to potential customers for electricity.

The development of the landfill site into an active energy generation centre would be the first project of its kind in the East of England, and it’s possible that the project has the potential to be replicated on other closed landfill sites in the county.

The aim is to create a 2.7 MW solar farm, plus battery energy storage system, covering an area of around 8 hectares (red area on the plan). The solar farm would generate enough electricity to meet the demand of nearly 800 houses per year.

Electricity would be used to charge a battery energy storage system on site and then supply energy into the electricity grid and/or supply to large local businesses based on demand. It is estimated that the solar farm would save around 6,500 tonnes of carbon over its lifetime.

Babraham Road park and ride

Across Cambridgeshire there are multiple Council-owned park and ride sites. The sites have undergone initial screening for their potential to host clean energy projects. The Council is looking to develop a 2.5 MW solar carport scheme at the Babraham Road Park and Ride site, which will include battery storage.

The site is located in Great Shelford Parish, approximately 6.4 km to the south of Cambridge.

A smart energy grid consists of solar renewable energy, battery storage to facilitate local supply and demand, electric vehicle charging, energy efficient lighting, cabling to supply electricity to local consumers, and smarter management and control of decentralised renewable energy. The battery storage will act as a relief valve on the national grid, absorbing electricity at times of excess generation, releasing it back to the grid when needed.

The solar photovoltaic modules in the Smart Energy Grids will generate significant amounts of renewable electricity (estimated to be almost 2.4 million kWh per year, or the equivalent of 500 homes), and will avoid the release of over 6,400 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime.

The project is expected to return over £19M over the course of its life. Revenue streams arise from the sale of electricity via a Power Purchase Agreement and an expanded network of electric vehicle chargers. Excess electricity will be used to enable the park and ride site to provide energy for all on-site needs, such as lighting, CCTV cameras and EV charging.

This innovative project could pave the way for public transport to move away from fossil fuels, improving air quality.

north angle solar farm energy project

A recent review of the Council’s rural estate identified North Angle Farm in Soham as a potential site for a solar farm. North Angle Farm is located just south of the existing Triangle solar farm and is part of the same Mere Estate.

The scope of the project being considered at North Angle is a 29 MW capacity solar farm, covering an area of approximately 76 hectares (188 acres). The outlined red area on the map shows the proposed areas of available land. It is estimated that the overall site could generate nearly the same amount of electricity as used by 12,000 households annually and would prevent the emission of more than 100,000 tonnes of CO₂ over the project’s lifetime through offsetting fossil fuel electricity generation.

The transformation of the site has the potential to hit four of the six priorities for the Corporate Energy Strategy: energy generation, energy supply, selling energy and supporting sustainable growth.