Planning permission has been lodged for the construction of a new solar farm in Irvine which will help North Ayrshire Council's quest towards hitting net zero.
And a transport statement has been commissioned by JBA Consulting in support of the Solar PV project at the Shewalton Landfill site in the east of the town.
This report outlines the traffic management measures to be used during construction to minimise disruption and to maintain the safety of pedestrians and other road users. Nearby roads have been assessed and judged to be able to deal with an increase in traffic.
It's said the temporary increase in traffic is unlikely to have a major impact on road safety and signs will alert people to construction traffic. Construction trips will be relatively low and spread over 10 to 12 weeks.
In March, the council awarded the tender for the delivery of the Shewalton renewable development, along with another one at Nethermains, to specialists Ameresco Limited.
The ground-breaking £12.8 million project will see solar farms built on former landfill sites at Nethermains, between Kilwinning and Irvine, and at Shewalton.
The solar farms are expected to generate a significant amount of energy, helping North Ayrshire to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, as well providing an annual net income that can be reinvested in the community.
Councillor Tony Gurney, cabinet member for economy and climate change, said: "This will be a transformational project which will provide clean, renewable energy and help us in our drive to reduce carbon emissions.
“Both Shewalton and Nethermains are both former landfill sites - with limited scope for alternative uses - so to see them transformed into a source of green energy will be wonderful.
“We have taken great strides in our efforts to curb climate change and have reduced our own carbon emissions by more than 68 per cent across the council’s estate since 2005. While that shows progress has been made, we know we will need to go further and faster.
“That’s why ambitious projects such as the solar farms will be so important as we continue to move towards our target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.”
The two projects are expected to be generating green energy by next year with Nethermains currently scheduled to be complete in spring 2024 and Shewalton coming online in autumn 2024.
It is anticipated that the Nethermains solar farm site will generate approximately 7,681MWh of electricity each year while Shewalton will generate around 5,482MWh to supply the local electricity grid.
Once the solar farms are operational, the council will earn income by selling the electricity generated via a power purchase agreement.
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