WORK has begun on a £7 million scheme to develop a solar farm to supply electricity to NI Water's Dunore water treatment works in south Antrim.
The project will involve work on a 33-acre site on the eastern shore of Lough Neagh, and when completed next March it will produce a peak output of 4.99 megawatts and is expected to save more than £500,000 a year in energy costs for NI Water.
And as well as meeting the energy needs of the Dunore waterworks, the project will also enable the company to contribute spare capacity to the grid.
NI Water is the largest user of electricity in Northern Ireland, and Dunore is its third largest site in terms of energy consumption, accounting for 7 per cent of the company¹s annual usage.
Around 30 people will be employed by Graham Construction throughout the contract.
Sara Venning, chief executive of NI Water, said: "We are committed to limiting our impact on the environment.
"We expect to increase our electricity consumption from renewable sources from currently around 13 per cent to 40 per cent in 2020/21, and this project will make a significant contribution towards our ability to achieve that stretching goal."
She added: "We recognise the opportunity that recent and future change in the electricity market and associated technologies represent. The Dunore solar farm is an important element in our strategy to deliver benefit for our customers and environment."
NI Water has reduced its annual expenditure on electricity by £5 million over the last three years and it is expected that electricity from a renewable source at the Dunore site will contribute to their efforts to keep expenditure on energy at the lowest levels possible.
It will also assist the utility in achieving the strategy outlined in its current business plan, which aims to see it reduce the production of greenhouse gases from operations and become more energy efficient.
