Oldham Council has announced its intention to build a 900kW solar farm.
The electricity generated from the site will be used to supply the council itself, helping with its aim of being carbon neutral by 2025.
The farm will be built on disused former Ferranti football fields at Wrigley Head, with a planning application expected to be submitted by the end of February 2020.
Building work is expected to begin next year pending approval.
The farm will complement the 120kW of rooftop solar already operating on Tommyfield Market, the council said.
“Over the last ten years the council has been forced to make millions of pounds in savings, so we need to come up with imaginative and economically sound ideas which benefit the borough and its people but don’t rely on traditional energy sources,” Abdul Jabbar, deputy leader of Oldham Council said.
“We also know tackling climate change is important to residents and rather than just talking about it we have made the decision to act.”
Many other local councils have solar on their radars. City of York Council announced its plans for a 400kW solar carport last year, and Oxford City Council recently completed what it claims is one of the UK’s largest solar carports.
Meanwhile, a ground-mounted solar farm owned by West Suffolk Council smashed generation targets in 2018/19, earning the council £100,000 more than expected.
“The growing climate change crisis is too important to ignore, and we can all do our bit,” Jabbar added.