Work has started on Scottish Water’s latest solar installation, which is also set to include Invinity Energy Systems’ vanadium flow batteries.

The £2 million project is the largest single solar energy investment made by Scottish Water Horizons and will see 1MW of solar installed on land adjoining the Perth Waste Water Treatment Works by Absolute Solar and Wind.

The 2,520 solar panels will be co-located with four vanadium flow batteries capable of storing up to 0.8MWh of energy. These will be provided by Invinity and are to be assembled at its manufacturing and testing facility in Bathgate, West Lothian.

This battery storage is set to enable around 94% of the renewable power generated to be used on site, which Scottish Water said will help cut its carbon footprint by around 160 tonnes of CO2 per year. The solar will provide around a quarter of the electricity needed to treat water at the site.

The installation is due to go live in 2021, with Scottish Water Horizons business development manager Donald MacDrayne describing it as an “exciting step forward” in the company’s goal to be net zero by 2040.

Scottish Water Horizons has already delivered 46 solar power projects as well as 20 wind projects, two biomass projects and a waste water heat recovery project.

Most recently, it completed the solar project at its Inverness Water Treatment Works, which at 1,300 panels is its third largest installation.

Invinity’s chief commercial officer Matt Harper praised the water company as having taken a “pioneering step” in showing how waste water treatment can be delivered with clean electricity, with Invinity looking forward to “proving that vision, and to exemplifying through this project how our vanadium flow batteries can be a critical part of sustainable infrastructure in Scotland, the UK and beyond”.