The UK arm of Norwegian energy company Statkraft has signed a novel hybrid power purchase and optimisation agreement with Warrington Renewables for the electricity from a 35MW solar farm and 27 megawatt-hour battery storage facility near York in northern England.
Warrington Renewables is wholly-owned by Warrington Borough Council and was completed at the end of last year.
The York hybrid solar farm uses both single-axis trackers and bifacial solar panels – that produce power from both sides of the panel – to maximise the output of the solar farm.
All the electricity from the project will be procured by Statkraft, offering the local authority a route to market for the solar production and optimising the flexibility of the battery storage to maximise the overall value of the site’s output, the company said.
Statkraft optimises the contracted power and flexibility through the use of its virtual ‘Unity’ power platform which aggregates energy from a network of wind and solar power, flexible gas assets and batteries in the UK totalling over 2.6GW.
Statkraft UK head of energy storage Nick Heyward said: “We are delighted to be working with a pioneering local authority to deliver what we do best.
“We had to develop a bespoke hybrid PPA solution to manage the various aspects of the site, reflecting the overall innovation that has gone into the site itself.
He added: “By optimising the energy storage alongside the renewable energy for Warrington Council we hope to set a blueprint to follow, for other local authorities and partners that are committed about delivering net zero as well as benefiting their communities through revenues from renewable energy.
“Agreements like this will be vital for balancing the UK’s electricity demand and supply as wind and solar power play bigger roles in powering our lives.”
The PPA was negotiated and signed remotely by Heyward and Andrew Doyle, the director of Warrington Renewables York.