A new 38-hectare solar farm in North Somerset has been acquired by Kent County Council (KCC) and LASER Energy.

The Bowerhouse II Solar Farm, which has recently been built by Ethical Power Ltd, has the capacity to have 39,312 solar panels and will provide 22,000 megawatt hours of green electricity to the grid a year.

KCC’s cabinet member for environment, Susan Carey, said: ‘This new solar farm will reduce our carbon footprint by 30% and make significant savings on our electricity costs for years to come.’

LASER Energy managed the acquisition on KCC’s behalf, using £14.415m from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme. They will continue to be responsible for the ongoing running of the facility.

Ethical Power Ltd has been appointed to run the operations and maintenance contract for the solar farm.

LASER’s director of energy, Nigel Hartnup, said: ‘I’m very proud of the role LASER and Commercial Services Group played in supporting KCC through this acquisition and we are looking forward to helping KCC with the ongoing management of the solar farm.

‘This experience has enabled LASER to establish key supply chain routes which we hope to use again in the future to assist other public sector bodies to achieve their decarbonisation goals.’

Stuart Whiteford, director at Ethical Power Ltd, added: ‘We are delighted to have worked with KCC and LASER in realising this project with the ultimate aim of contributing towards KCC’s aspiration of achieving a Net Zero status.

‘I would like to thank everybody involved in the delivery of the project, which is the culmination of several years’ hard work. It is an example of what can be achieved via close collaboration between the public and private sectors to achieve ambitious carbon reduction targets. We look forward to working together in the future.’