Green energy is helping to power Scottish Water’s treatment facility in the Garnock Valley after a £210,000 investment boost.

Camphill Water Treatment Works, near Kilbirnie, has seen 670 solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels installed following a £210,000 investment from the utility’s commercial subsidiary, Scottish Water Horizons.

The facility serves around 40,000 people living in the Dalry, Kilbirnie, Beith, Ardrossan, West Kilbride, and Saltcoats areas.

This carbon reducing technology will offset 14 per cent of the electricity required to operate the facility, with the new solar PV system generating 0.145GWHr of energy on an annual basis – that is the same amount of energy needed to power 40 homes for a year.

Ian Piggott, project manager at Scottish Water Horizons, led the project delivery.

He said: “The introduction of sustainable solutions to reduce our carbon footprint at our Camphill Works further demonstrates Scottish Water’s commitment to tackling climate change and protecting the environment.

“The solar technology installed here will help drive down the operating costs of the works which will in turn help keep household bills low.”

More than 70 of Scottish Water’s water and waste water treatment works are now either self-sufficient or partly sufficient in their power requirements.

This recent installation at the facility near Kilbirnie contributes to the Scottish Government’s new ambitious targets for Scottish Water which sets out that the public utility generates or hosts three times as much as energy as it uses by 2030.

Renewable energy experts FES Support Services delivered the project on behalf of Scottish Water Horizons.