Aberdeenshire Council has appointed solar installer Emtec Energy to deliver solar and battery storage retrofits to 500 local authority homes.
The programme, which is valued at £4 million, has identified 500 properties in the Inverurie and MacDuff areas of the city which will receive solar and storage systems with the intention of alleviating grid constraints in the area.
Around 3.25kW of solar will be paired with a 5.5kWh battery in each property, and the systems will be used to provide grid services to the local network.
The pilot scheme has been launched after the council attempted to roll-out energy efficient schemes on existing properties, including solar PV, but was hamstrung by local grid constraints which prevented connecting systems to the grid.
Aberdeenshire Council tendered for the installation work and an aggregator – Solo Energy – enlisted to take the systems into grid service provision markets.
Chris Clark, managing director at Emtec Energy, said that it was a project the company wanted to deliver “from the initial tender notice”.
“One of the biggest barriers to deployment within our sector is connecting to the network. This project will not only reduce fuel poverty in the region, but also help current constraints and not add to them.
“This is really exciting for our industry as a whole. Whilst there have been some smaller schemes delivered before, nothing at this scale from a domestic aggregation perspective and it paves the way for other local authorities to follow suit,” he said.