St Andrews Water Site Goes Greener In Net Zero Drive

A waste water treatment works in St Andrews is boosting its green credentials to support our pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2040.

The site, located next to The Castle Course, has been fitted out with an additional 516 solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels.  

“Sustainable solutions such as this are great news for the environment and also for our customers. This historic town’s waste water is now being treated with a lower carbon impact, making the community greener and more sustainable.”

Stephen Bartie
Asset Planner for Scottish Water

Clear Benefits

The carbon reducing technology will bring lots of benefits, it will:

• offset almost ten per cent of the electricity required to operate the facility
• generate 0.145 GWh of energy on an annual basis – the same amount of energy needed to boil around 1,450,000 kettles
• save 34 CO2 equivalent tonnes per annum

Green Investment

Scottish Water Horizons, our commercial subsidiary, invested £220,000 installing the panels along with a new electric car charging point, to help support the transition of our fleet of vans away from fossil fuels to clean energy.

Roddy Speirs, Project Manager for Scottish Water Horizons, said: “PV power plays a major role in helping tackle climate change and reduce carbon footprint. The renewable energy generated here in St Andrews will help Scottish Water become a greener organisation and reach our goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2040.”

Sustainable Solutions

The Fife site joins a portfolio of more than 76 water and waste water treatment works which are now either self-sufficient or partly sufficient in generating their own power requirements.

Renewable energy experts Absolute Solar and Wind delivered the project whilst adhering to ongoing Covid guidance set out by the Scottish Government. 

Stephen Bartie, Asset Planner for Scottish Water, said: “Sustainable solutions such as this are great news for the environment and also for our customers. This historic town’s waste water is now being treated with a lower carbon impact, making the community greener and more sustainable.”

The energy needed to provide essential water and waste water services makes us the largest single user of electricity in the country. 

We announced a target to host or self-generate three times our annual electricity consumption by 2030.