Portsmouth City Council to install 8,900 solar panels in business park

Last week we reported on new solar car park canopies at Northumberland County Council’s HQ, this week the Lakeside North Harbour Business Park – which is owned by Portsmouth City Council – has been given permission to install an even bigger system across five building and three car parks.

The five buildings will be fitted with 1,820 roof-mounted solar PV panels, while there will be 7,105 panels installed as solar canopies above existing car parking spaces.

EV charging points will also be installed, with infrastructure in place to grow the network as demand increases .

The Solar PV system size is 4,462 kW, with 910 kW on the  buildings and 3,552kW on the car park canopies.   It is anticipated that the system will generate more than 4 million kWhs per annum, enough to power 1,300 homes for a year and is projected to save more than 860 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted each year.

The business park will consume just over 64% of the generated power which equates to 37% of the site’s electricity requirements, the same as over 1,000 homes’ annual electricity consumption.  The battery will provide additional power to the site.

2mW of battery storage will be controlled to ensure it maximises the benefit to Lakeside North Harbour. In times of high power prices, the battery will discharge to Lakeside to minimise consumption from the grid.  During grid peaks and troughs the battery will discharge/charge, take part in other grid services with any unused power exported to the grid.

Custom Solar, a Mitie company, will be installing the solar panels, solar canopies, 2MW battery and EV chargers alongside the council’s in-house energy services and building projects team who will be managing and funding the installation.

Councillor Kimberly Barrett, Cabinet member for Climate Change and Greening the City said:  ‘We are constantly aiming to improve our solar power in Portsmouth, and to begin working on possibly the largest solar canopy project in the UK is a great step in coming closer to our goal of Net Zero by 2030 and using greener energy in the city.’

Simon Bateman, Manager at Lakeside said: ‘This is a fantastic opportunity for Lakeside businesses to benefit from the council’s 2030 net zero target at no direct cost to them.  This solar project will enable us to have a 100% green electric supply for all 55 businesses at Lakeside. The environment is a fundamental core value at Lakeside – from creating the right atmosphere for our occupier community, to driving sustainability and efficient use of our valuable resources.’