The £307,000 project has seen 324 ground-mounted PV (photovoltaic) panels installed at the borehole site in Moffat, where raw water is pumped to the water treatment works before going on to supply customers in local area. It is set to generate 0.14GWh of green energy per year – enough boil over 622,000 kettles a year.

The renewable energy generated by the solar panels will meet 12 per cent of the site’s power usage, saving 17 tonnes of carbon annually and supporting Scottish Water’s drive to reach net zero emissions by 2040.

The project has been led by Scottish Water Horizons, the public utility’s commercial subsidiary, and delivered by contractor R&A Group.

Scottish Water Horizons project manager Padmini Maheshwari said: “We are delighted this project is now complete in Moffat and it joins a growing number of solar power schemes based at Scottish Water assets around the country.

“The increasing impact of the climate crisis is being felt across Scottish Water’s operations and serves to highlight the urgent need to reduce emissions. Our solar energy programme is an important facet in our drive to net zero and we are continuing to ramp
up the scale and pace of delivering these projects.”

Scottish Water operations team leader Ricky Henderson added: “Due to the height and distance that these pumps have to push the water to get it to the treatment works, the power consumption at this site is significant.

“It is great that some of this energy usage is now going to be met by solar power and we will be reviewing the operation of the pumps to ensure we can maximise the energy generated by the scheme at peak production.”