Green boost for Wigan as regional clean energy project wins funding

Unlocking Clean Energy in Greater Manchester (UCEGM) brings together five local authorities that have declared a climate emergency.

The other four alongside Wigan are Manchester, Rochdale, Salford and Stockport.

The scheme will look to make the most of under-used council sites and buildings and the list of projects includes a rooftop solar panels scheme at Wigan Council's Makerfield Way depot.

The three-year, £17.2m project, which is led by Energy Systems Catapult and part-funded with £8.6m from the European Regional Development Fund, will also increase the use of solar panels, develop hydro-electric generation, improve battery storage in the region, enhance the electric vehicle charging network and roll out smart energy systems.

Coun Paul Prescott, cabinet member for environment at Wigan Council, said: “We are delighted to have secured this funding in what will be another step in the council’s journey to becoming carbon neutral by 2038 or sooner.

“This money will go towards making our Makerfield depot greener and more sustainable and by installing solar panels to the roof we will generate sufficient renewable electricity to power the full operations, thus reducing our carbon footprint and delivering significant savings with all excessive electricity stored and used to charge our electric fleet.

“As a council, we want to be at the forefront of positive change when it comes to creating a greener and cleaner borough and investments like this will go a long way to accelerating our ambitions.”

The project is also looking at creating two new solar farms and three rooftop solar panel schemes across the city-region.

The team behind UCEGM hopes it will become a blueprint for other areas looking to reduce their carbon footprint.

Richard Halsey, capabilities director at Energy Systems Catapult, said: “This project will deliver new renewable energy generation on under-utilised public land.

"It will incorporate energy storage and electric vehicle charging using digital systems to better align variable renewable generation to meet future local energy demands.

"Finally it will develop innovative business models that can unlock private sector investment and grow local businesses."

Energy Systems Catapult estimates that the clean energy project will save the city-region around 3,134 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

The not-for-profit organisation's role in the scheme will be to find ways of maximising the value from the renewable energy being generated.