Viridor’s first solar park is now operational at its closed landfill site at Westbury.
The landfill took its last volumes of waste in 2004 and was fully restored to grassland.
The solar park, on the northern part of the site, was constructed covering seven hectares and is designed to export 3,200MWh of electricity per annum to the National Grid, enough energy to power 900 homes. The development is a wholly sustainable project that helps Wiltshire’s renewable energy targets and complies with local and national planning policy. It will also save about 1,000t of C02.
Mike Denman, Viridor project manager said, “We were very pleased with how quickly this project came together and see this closed landfill site being used to generate vital renewable energy through solar. We were able to use the electricity generation infrastructure already in place from the landfill gas engines and the grassland continues to support the local biodiversity.”
The 12,780 panelled park was built and installed for Viridor by Solar Century.
A review of all Viridor’s UK sites is underway to assess the viability of further solar schemes.
