The local authority has awarded the tender for the delivery of these exciting renewable developments to Ameresco Limited.

The ground-breaking £12.8 million project will see solar farms built on former landfill sites at Nethermains between Kilwinning and Irvine, and at Shewalton in Irvine.

Ameresco Limited has a track record of delivery of renewable energy projects and will begin work shortly on the detailed design phase of the project.

The two solar farms are key elements of delivery of the council’s Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy and are expected to generate a significant amount of energy, helping North Ayrshire to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, as well providing an annual net income that can be reinvested in the area. 

Councillor Tony Gurney, cabinet member for Economy and Climate Change at North Ayrshire Council, said: “This will be a transformational project which will provide clean, renewable energy and help us in our drive to reduce carbon emissions.

“Both Shewalton and Nethermains are both former landfill sites - with limited scope for alternative uses - so to see them transformed into a source of green energy will be wonderful.

“We have taken great strides in our efforts to curb climate change and have reduced our own carbon emissions by more than 68 per cent across the Council’s estate since 2005.

“While that shows progress has been made, we know we will need to go further and faster. That’s why ambitious projects such as the solar farms will be so important as we continue to move towards our target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.”

Stewart Dunn, business development manager at Ameresco, said: “We are excited and proud to partner with North Ayrshire Council to deliver these important solar PV farms that will contribute significantly to decarbonisation of their operations.

“As a leading independent clean technology company, we have a track record of implementing solar PV on landfill sites to generate renewable energy and look forward to energising these systems.”

The two projects are expected to be generating green energy by next year with Nethermains currently scheduled to be complete in Spring 2024 and Shewalton coming online in Autumn 2024.

It is anticipated that the Nethermains solar farm site will generate approximately 7,681MWh of electricity each year while Shewalton will generate around 5,482MWh to supply the local electricity grid. The annual reduction in CO2 emissions is estimated at 859 tonnes of CO2 per year based on an annual yield of over 13,000 MWh.

Once the solar farms are operational, the council will earn income by selling the electricity generated via a Power Purchase Agreement.