Powering the future from Brogborough landfill site

Bringing landfill into the 21st Century with solar power Image source, Alex Pope/BBC Image caption, Ellie Goodchild said about 20 people were working on building the solar farm as well as 30 engineers who work on the gas side of the site By Alex Pope in Brogborough Published 4 hours ago The building of solar farms on agricultural land is a divisive subject. Plans have recently been approved for one of the biggest solar plants in England. It will stretch across 2,965 acres (1,200 hectares) of land south and west of Wellingborough, north of Northampton and parts of Buckinghamshire. Many people feel panels should be built on brownfield sites instead. Using former landfill sites is an option. At Brogborough in Bedfordshire, one is currently being built on what Infinis, the company behind the work, said was "Europe's biggest landfill." It said it was bringing "landfills into the 21st Century" Image source, Alex Pope/BBC Image caption, The solar panels, currently under construction, are placed across the large site Work started earlier this year on the 450 acre (182 hectare) site which runs parallel to the A421. It is due to be switched on in spring 2027. More than 62,000 panels are to be installed across 168 acres (68 hectares), creating about 40mwp of power - enough to fuel about 10,500 homes and the nearby Cranfield University. The landfill site, previously a clay quarry and brickworks, operated from 1983, but has since been covered with clay that was extracted from the same area. As the buried waste decomposes, methane gas is produced which is turned into 9mw of renewable energy a year and fed straight into the national power grid. Image source, Alex Pope/BBC Image caption, Jason McGray said the landfill site is completely sealed and cannot be built on for decades Jason McGray, head of development of Northampton-based Infinis, said the solar site will also feed straight into the grid and a "private wire connection" will run to Cranfield, part of the Brogborough Clean Energy Hub. He said the land cannot be used for anything else due to the "long-term management of gas and leakage liquids". That gas is collected and fed through gas engines to generate a constant power. He said: "It's constant, it's green energy but it's predictable and manageable. "Combined with that we're now building solar so we've got the two sources of renewable energy both coming out of the same resource." In the event that too much power is generated, McGray said there is also room on site for battery storage. He said: "We've got planning permission, so we can then store power temporarily until it's needed on the grid." McGray predicts managing the gas will go on longer than the 35-year expected life of the solar farm. Image source, Alex Pope/BBC Image caption, Gas is collected on the site from waste buried below and then turned into electricity Ellie Goodchild is head of public affairs for Infinis. She said the land is owned by FCC, the energy is managed by Infinis and Akis Energy is the construction team behind the solar site. She said the company wanted to "bring landfills into the 21st centry", turning a "legacy environmental issue into a productive energy asset" Goodchild added: "Brogborough was formerly Europe's biggest landfill. "This land would otherwise sit dormant, as the gas that comes out of landfills requires constant management to make sure that there are no environmental issues and issues for the local community, such as smells. "This is about as brownfield as brownfield land comes." The company also manages Stewartby landfill site across the A421. Here methane gas is also turned into power and planning permission has been granted for another solar farm to be built there. Image source, Alex Pope/BBC Image caption, The solar panels are currently being built on the site of former Oxford Clay brick pits in Brogborough A spokesperson for Cranfield University said it had been working with the company towards "securing a local zero carbon electricity supply". They said: "This would underpin the University's progress towards achieving Net Zero carbon emissions by 2030." Image source, Infinis Image caption, Building work is currently under way and the site is expected to start generating solar power from early 2027 Dr Pinar Karagoz is a lecturer in sustainability and smart environment at the school of engineering and innovation at The Open University, based in Milton Keynes. She said: "In general terms capped landfill sites can be a sensible location for solar developments, offering important climate mitigation benefits. "These sites also generally yield poor agricultural returns, even after fertiliser application." However, Karagoz added that the benefits and potential trade-offs should be considered. She highlighted that solar panels can "alter soil moisture, temperature and airflow, creating wetter and drier zones across a site." "Since solar panels can influence all three factors, the resulting effects may differ depending on drier or wetter regions, " she said. Do you have a story suggestion for Beds, Herts or Bucks? Contact us below. Get in touch Your Voice Contact form Contact form Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds , Facebook , external , Instagram , external and X , external . Related topics Solar power Energy industry Renewable energy Northampton Landfill Cranfield University Cranfield Stewartby More on this story Two MPs criticise approval of major solar farm Published 10 October Government gives go-ahead to major solar farm Published 8 October Former landfill site to become solar farm Published 14 March 2024 Related internet links Brogborough Clean Energy Hub Cranfield University