With a capacity of over 1 Megawatt (MW) and the estimated investment value of £880,000, the scheme would be the largest renewable energy project delivered in the north east to date by Scottish Water Horizons, the publicly-owned water company’s commercial subsidiary that works to encourage growth and invest in renewable technologies.

The proposed site is located between the B9031 coast road and the existing Waste Water Treatment Works site, midway between Fraserburgh and Sandhaven.

Scottish Water Horizons project manager Roddy Speirs said: “Solar energy has the potential to play a key part in tackling climate change and achieving Scottish Water’s ambitious target to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

“The proposed site at Fraserburgh presents a great opportunity for a significant scheme, in close proximity to the treatment works where most of the electricity generated will be used. Some power would also be exported to the grid, helping toward the wider decarbonisation of electricity in Scotland.”

The project also includes provision for battery storage to be installed in the years ahead, screened behind the existing earth bund at the WWTW.

Roddy Speirs added: “Scottish Water Horizons are committed to supporting Scottish Water’s goal that 100% of their services are powered by renewable energy by 2040.

“Energy storage is one way in which we can use even more of the clean electricity that we generate ourselves. This is an area of rapidly developing technology and we are working with potential suppliers to ensure we invest at the right time to meet the site’s needs in a cost effective way.”

Earlier this week, Scottish Water published its Net Zero Emissions Routemap, outlining a new approach which fully embraces low-carbon energy, materials, products and construction techniques, as well as storage of unavoidable emissions.

Scottish Water Horizons is seeking to deliver 90 Gigawatt hours (GWh) per annum of new renewable generation by 2030 to help the publicly-owned water company on its journey to meeting its net zero carbon goal by 2040, 5 years ahead of the Scottish Government’s target for the country as a whole. The subsidiary has already delivered over 45 solar power projects, as well as 20 wind projects, two biomass projects and a heat from waste water project. Scottish Water also hosts significant additional renewable generation capacity on land that it owns across Scotland.