North West-based water giant, United Utilities, has begun work on Europe's largest floating solar farm in Manchester.
The £3.5m project will become the second largest such installation in the world
In an effort to reduce its energy costs, the utility firm - which supplies around seven million people and 400,000 businesses across the North - will float around 12,000 solar panels, covering an area of 45,500 sq m, on the surface of the water at Godley Reservoir in Hyde.
The solar power plant is expected to complete before Christmas and provide United Utilities with 2.7GWh of zero carbon power a year - enough to provide the local water treatment works with around a third of its energy requirements.
Chris Stubbs, head of renewable energy at United Utilities, said: “We have a target to generate 35% of our power requirements by 2020 and this project will make a significant contribution to that aim.
“While floating solar has been deployed elsewhere around the world, most notably in Japan, it is a new technology to the UK. Installations, such as the Godley solar scheme, will help us to keep energy costs and water customers’ bills low.”
The £3.5m project will become the second largest such installation in the world behind the Sakasamaike facility in Hyogo, Japan - though Japanese tech firm, Kyocera, plan to have a mammoth 180,000 sq m floating solar plant operational on Yamakura Dam reservoir by March 2016.
Last year, Britain's first floating solar panel farm consisting of 800 panels was opened on a reservoir in Berkshire.
United Utilities have also applied for planning permission to place a further 12,000 floating solar panels on Langthwaite Reservoir in Lancashire - just 60 miles north west of Godley.
Though the new Lancashire solar project now looks unlikely as the government recently unveiled plans to slash solar subsidies before 2016.
