Scottish Water graduate celebrates solar project success

A Scottish Water graduate is celebrating after completing his first large-scale solar project. 

Heriot-Watt University chemical and energy engineering graduate, Steven Brasher from Dalgety Bay in Fife, has completed the project at Denny Waste Water Treatment Works.

More than £660,000 was invested by Scottish Water to install more than 830 solar panels at the works as part of the company’s efforts to cut operational carbon emissions to net zero by 2030. 

The solar photovoltaic (PV) panels installed at Denny are capable of supplying more than a third of the site’s annual energy requirements. 

The carbon-reducing technology, which works by converting light into electricity using semi-conducting materials, will reduce carbon emissions by 88 tonnes a year – equivalent to 56 return passenger flights from Edinburgh to New York.

Brasher, an engineering graduate with Scottish Water Horizons, the public utility’s commercial subsidiary, said: “I am really excited and proud to see the completion of our latest array of solar panels. 

“I joined Scottish Water Horizons less than a year ago and I have been incredibly inspired by all the work that goes on behind the scenes to lower our carbon footprint. To be given the opportunity to lead a project that will help greatly reduce the emissions from one of Scottish Water’s operational sites has been really rewarding.

“As a business, we’re looking at loads of ways to maximise solar output and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to get involved and widen my experience. Already I have learned a huge amount and I cannot wait to apply those learnings to future renewable projects.”

Alan Mearns, project manager at Scottish Water Horizons, said: “It has been brilliant to see Steven manage this project from start to finish. At Scottish Water Horizons we are firm believers that the best way to learn is by doing and I think the successful delivery of this project proves just that.”

Scottish Water has committed to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040, with an interim target to host or self-generate three times its annual electricity consumption by 2030.

The installation at Denny Waste Water Treatment Works joins a long list of solar PV schemes already up and running at many Scottish Water assets across Scotland. Currently, almost 80 of Scottish Water’s water and waste water treatment works are now either self-sufficient or partly sufficient in their power requirements.

The project was delivered by renewable energy solutions specialists FES Group on behalf of Scottish Water Horizons.