Telford & Wrekin Council's solar farm to go live
Telford & Wrekin Council’s solar farm will be ready to start making electricity from the new year.
The solar farm at Wheat Leasows is only the second council-owned project in the UK. The other council-run solar farm in Cornwall.
Just over 12 months after initial plans were proposed, construction work began on site in September.
All of the more than 15,000 panels are in place and testing and commissioning of the solar farm is now underway.
The solar farm will be fully operational by the end of the year and will be generating enough electricity to power more than 800 houses by the beginning of 2015.
With construction work now finished, additional work to the site is now being undertaken to install bird and bat boxes around the farm’s field. These boxes have been created especially for the project by The Skills and Enterprise Hub. The Hub is part of the Council's Inclusive training services. It offers disabled people the opportunity to develop work based skills and gain recognised qualifications.
Councillor Bill McClements, Telford & Wrekin’s cabinet member for finance and enterprise, said:
“We’re really pleased that the construction work on the solar farm has been completed on time and that we’re now ready to test.
“The solar farm will begin making money from the first day it is connected to the grid and will make £150,000 in its first year which will be driven back into frontline services.
“This project demonstrates our commitment to show community leadership and to be a greener council.”
