Centrica's first UK solar farm starts generating power

UK energy company Centrica has announced that power generation is underway at the Codford Solar Farm, the first newly built solar farm owned and operated by the company.

Construction began at the site in Wiltshire in April 2022, after consent was acquired by Centrica Business Solutions in 2021 and forms part of the company's strategy to expand its portfolio of flexible energy assets.

Made up of 33,000 panels, the project has a total capacity of 18MW and should produce 19GWh of green electricity every year, enough to power some 4,850 homes.

Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica, said: “I’m delighted that we’re now back building assets, focussing on clean electricity generation and storage.

"That integration stretches from the construction of new generating assets, such as Codford, to the movement of power across Europe.”

Vodafone has signed a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Centrica for approximately 9GWh of green electricity from the solar farm. The remainder will be sold into the national grid through Centrica’s Energy Marketing & Trading business.

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The deal is the third PPA signed by Vodafone and Centrica Energy Marketing & Trading over the last year. In May 2022, Vodafone and Centrica announced a long-term PPA with MYTILINEOS for the output from three solar farms in the UK. In February 2023, Vodafone committed to take a significant proportion of the output from a further five solar farms.

Rt Hon Chris Skidmore MP, OBE, chair of the Net Zero Review & Mission Zero Report, said: “The Net Zero Review, Mission Zero, that I published earlier this year called on the government to recognise that expanding solar power generation would be one of the most effective means of delivering net zero in the future.

“I am proud to be a part of the opening of Codford solar power plant...This site has the capacity to generate over 18 megawatts of clean energy, which is enough to power 5,000 homes and is a prime example of what we need to achieve to meet our net zero goals.”

In late 2021, Centrica announced ambitions to deliver 900MW of low carbon assets by 2026. The company is currently building battery storage projects at former gas peaking plants at Brigg, Lincolnshire, Knapton, North Yorkshire, and Ostend in Belgium, and has developed a multi-GW pipeline of projects.