Up to 3,000 homes in Bristol to benefit from renewable electricity produced by wind farms in Aberdeenshire and Suffolk
Council-owned energy supplier Bristol Energy has inked deals to directly take 3.55MW of power generated by two onshore wind farms in Suffolk and Aberdeenshire, in a move expected to benefit thousands of local households.
The power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Thrive Renewables were announced yesterday and will provide enough electricity to power up to 3,000 Bristol households, while also helping the council edge closer to its target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
The PPA for the power generated by Thrive Renewables' 2.75MW wind farm at Ness Point in the east of England will provide enough electricity for 2,225 homes, while the deal for the 0.8MW Auchtygalls turbine in Scotland will power an additional 700 homes, the two Bristol-based firms said.
Matthew Clayton, managing director at Thrive Renewables - which holds a portfolio of 17 renewables projects with assets under management in excess of £117m - welcomed the PPAs as a "positive step on Bristol's journey".
"Bristol declared a climate emergency and rolled out ambitious plans to become carbon-neutral," he said. "This means that collaborations across the city are now vital to deliver these goals and reduce harmful emissions."
Bristol City Council has cut its carbon emissions by 71 per cent since 2005, beating its own target several years early, and councillors recently declared a "climate emergency". It was also one of the first local authorities to purchase renewable electricity in the 1990s.
Simon Proctor, renewables and origination manager at Bristol Energy, therefore welcomed the two PPAs as "an important part of our purpose to create a sustainable energy company which has social value at its heart".
The company supplies over 165,000 residential meter points and 4,500 business meter points, and holds 54 contracts with independent renewable generators.
"We believe one of the most socially responsible things we can do is to get to supplying 100 per cent renewable energy and this deal will help us in our journey," he said. "And importantly - the value from the deal is retained locally."
The PPAs were completed on e-POWER, an online auction enabling independent renewable energy generators to sell electricity to utilities.