Leicestershire County Council has approved plans for a new solar farm that could save the council £600,000 a year in energy bills and cut carbon emissions.
The £5.9m green energy complex is to be built on a 55-acre, county council-owned farm north of the A6 near Quorn.
The local authority estimates it will create nearly 10,000 megawatt hours of electricity a year and save nearly 5,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
The solar farm could also save the council around £600,000-a-year in energy bills.
County council cabinet lead member for resources Cllr Lee Breckon said: ‘This project ticks so many important boxes for us.
‘We are a green council investing in this environmentally-friendly project which will make a big contribution to creating clean and renewable energy while also providing considerable savings allowing us to fund vital front-line services.
‘It is a key scheme in our Corporate Asset Investment Fund (CAIF) which we set up to use the council’s property and land innovatively to deliver savings.
‘The money we make from CAIF protects key services at a time when there is much uncertainty around council funding.’
