Styles & Wood wins solar array design brief

The property services group has started work on a £2m project to design and install a solar array to power three Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority facilities, working alongside technical advisor AMEC Foster Wheeler.

The group's specialist renewable energy division, Styles & Wood Energy, is installing the 2.2 MW ground-mounted system on a brownfield site at GMWDA's resource recovery facility in Salford. The electricity generated by the 8,000-panel array will help power the three main facilities at the site, which process a total of 3,268 tonnes of waste and recycling every year.

GMWDA is the largest of six English waste disposal authorities that were created under the Local Government Act 1985. It provides waste disposal services for 1,009,815 households in Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford. and handles around 5% of national municipal waste.

Ian Dunning, head of Styles & Wood Energy, said: "This installation will help Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority to significantly reduce its energy consumption and operate more sustainably.

"Given the potential to generate revenue through the Government's Feed in Tariff, businesses have become even more interested in launching their own solar schemes. This has led to third party investors setting aside funds for these projects with the Feed in Tariff providing a return on investment through solar deals – enabling systems to be constructed without the need for organisations to source the initial capital. Because of this solar is still one of the most viable ways of generating energy on smaller scales."