Green energy to power pumps
at Moffat borehole

A solar scheme in Moffat is helping power pumps that provide water to the town’s water treatment works.

The £307,000 project involved Scottish Water Horizons installing 324 ground mounted PV (photovoltaic) panels at the borehole site in Moffat. This site pumps raw water to the water treatment works, supplying customers in local area. The scheme is set to generate 0.14GWh of green energy per year – enough to boil around 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.

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.”

The project was delivered by renewables contractor R&A Group.