Salford boosts green agenda with solar panel scheme

Around 6,000 solar photovoltaic panels are to be installed on a nine-acre site off Kenyon Way in Little Hulton, as the council takes its latest step towards meeting Greater Manchester’s 2038 carbon-neutral deadline. 

The site is council owned and previously allocated for residential development. 

Energy produced by the solar panels is intended to offset Salford City Council’s electricity costs. The panels will provide energy to power the equivalent of 438 homes a year, the council said. 

The savings made through the scheme can “free up funds that can then be redirected towards community initiatives”, according to a planning statement prepared by infrastructure firm Aecom. 

The solar panels will be operational for 25 years, after which they will be decommissioned. 

It will take five weeks to implement the panels

In 2018, the council, alongside multidisciplinary consultancy Arup, drew up a shortlist of eight possible sites for the project but ultimately none were deemed suitable. 

The Kenyon Way site was chosen after its allocation for residential development was amended. 

Cllr Derek Antrobus, lead member for planning and sustainable development at Salford Council, said: This approval is a major step forward in Salford’s ambitions to play its part in cutting carbon emissions to minimise the scale of climate change. 

“In the past decade, we have reduced our carbon emissions by 50%. We also became the first authority in Greater Manchester to convert its street lights to LED, and all the electricity used by the city council comes from renewable energy suppliers.”