Supermarket chain Tesco has announced the signing of its largest UK PPA [power purchase agreement] – at Cleve Hill solar park in Faversham, Kent.
Cleve Hill is being built by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, and will help provide Tesco with energy security in its push to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. The new solar park will provide up to 10% of Tesco’s UK electricity demand, with the clean energy created enough to power the equivalent of 144 large stores for a year.
The site is the largest solar and battery storage project ever constructed in the UK, with a capacity of 373 megawatts, and is set to become operational in early 2025.
It is a 15-year PPA and the site features more than 560,000 solar panels. Energy company EDF is providing power balancing and shaping services to facilitate the agreement.
Tesco said partnerships like this one are crucial for bridging the investment and infrastructure gap needed to achieve the UK’s net zero target.
Over the past five years, Tesco has announced multiple energy projects, helping the retailer source green electricity directly from windfarms and solar parks across the UK. Following this new deal, PPAs will cover 45% of Tesco UK’s or 36% of the Tesco Group’s expected 2030 electricity demand.
Ken Murphy, group CEO of Tesco, said: “Cleve Hill solar park, with its ability to generate up to 10% of our UK electricity demand, joins a number of other PPAs we’ve announced over the last five years.
“With its ability to provide vital energy storage infrastructure, it’s a key part of the renewable energy strategy in the UK, and further evidence of our commitment to tackle climate change and source green electricity from innovative projects like this.”
Keith Gains, managing director & UK regional lead at Quinbrook, called Cleve Hill “a blueprint for the next generation of energy transition infrastructure in the UK”.
Tesco also announced last week that it had teamed up with Forestry England to increase the diversity and abundance of wildlife across the Neroche, Somerset area. The retailer said it will support Forestry England to transform the landscape, helping it to become a sanctuary for wildlife to thrive and expand.
It represents the first partnership to be announced as part of Tesco’s Nature Programme, a series of initiatives aimed at helping to protect and restore nature in Tesco’s supply chains.
According to the supermarket chain, the first year of the project in Somerset will focus on collecting data on the range of species in the area through the collection of environmental DNA samples of soil and water, ecology surveys and gathering bioacoustics data using the latest artificial intelligence listening technology. The tie-up will also involve the trial of fence-free cattle grazing to help improve the condition of the landscape.
Ashwin Prasad, Tesco’s chief commercial officer, remarked: “The UK food industry relies on healthy soils, clean water supplies, and abundant biodiversity, so it’s crucial we play our part in protecting and restoring nature in our supply chains.
“We’ve been working with our farmers and suppliers for some time on protecting and restoring nature. As part of this work, they’ve told us they want more help implementing measures that will help tackle climate change and biodiversity loss.”
[image credit: Green Retail World]
