Rhondda Cynon Taf’s Cabinet has this week (21 March) has agreed to progress plans for the development of a ‘Land Based Solar Farm’. The facility will, when constructed, be an asset owned by Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council.
It is estimated that the project will see a £6.82million investment to create this significant green energy source. The project, if realised, has the potential to ‘offset’ over 1,500 tonnes of carbon per year, and approaching 54,000 tonnes over the expected lifecycle of the project.
A credible solar farm will make a vastly significant contribution to the Council’s ability to offset its Carbon Footprint, and towards achieving our Net Zero Carbon target. Our aim is that by 2030, we will be a Carbon Neutral Council and the County Borough will be as close as possible to Carbon Neutral as we can get by then.
Councillor Rhys Lewis, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Communities, said: “This ambitious and significant solar farm project provides us with a further opportunity to generate the green energy needed by residents in the very near future.
“The price volatility we are seeing in global oil and gas markets have highlighted the need for us to increase domestic energy generation and speed up the transition away from fossil fuels.
“The solar farm project has the scale required to provide a significant amount of energy into the National Grid so we can play our part in tackling climate change, reaching Net Zero faster, and contributing to the UKs energy security needs.”
The Council is continuing to work towards its goal of becoming a Carbon Neutral Council and County Borough by 2030 and has already made progress towards achieving this commitment to meet and contribute to global, national and local targets.
The Council already purchases 100% of its electrical energy supply from renewable energy sources.
All street lighting across the County Borough, around 29,700 units, have been converted to LED or equivalent resulting in a 75% reduction in the energy used since 2015/16. The Council has also installed 108 Solar Panel arrays across Schools and Corporate Buildings, totalling 1.7MW.
Adding to this, the Council is already on course to meet the Welsh Government’s recycling target of 70% for 2025 and has increased its recycling target to 80% by 2025.
Over 11,000 tonnes of food waste is also collected from RCT households every year and recycled at the Biogen site and converted into energy to power the equivalent of over 1,000 homes.
For more information on Climate Change in RCT visit: www.rctcbc.gov.uk/ThinkClimateRCT
Posted on 25/03/2022