Report of Discussion: 13 October 2020

A Discussion was held by videoconference. Deputy Vice‑Chancellor Professor Nicola Padfield was presiding, with the Registrary’s deputy, the Senior Proctor, the Junior Proctor and five other persons present.

The following Report was discussed:

First-stage Report of the Council, dated 29 July 2020, on a University of Cambridge Solar Farm at Lord’s Bridge

(Reporter, 6587, 2019–20, p. 551).

Professor I. M. Leslie (Chair of the Environmental Sustainability Strategy Committee, Director of University Information Services and Fellow of Christ’s College):

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, in my capacity as Chair of the Environmental Sustainability Strategy Committee, I commend this Report to the University.

In 2019, the University of Cambridge consumed £14.3m worth of electricity. With the expansion of the operational estate already under construction this is predicted to increase to approximately £21.2m by 2024. That is before consideration of a shift away from gas to electricity for space and water heating. In 2019, estimated emissions from our electricity consumption were approximately 30,000 tonnes CO2e.1

The University is committed to reducing emissions from fossil fuel consumption and has adopted a Science Based Target to reduce its energy-related (i.e. scope 1 and 2) carbon emissions to absolute zero by 2048, with an aspiration to become zero carbon by 2038. In order to achieve this, the University will need to shift from gas to electricity and ensure that our electricity supply is further decarbonised. Decarbonising our electricity supply will be achieved through the continued decarbonisation of the grid, increasing the proportion of electricity we purchase via Power Purchase Agreements tied to renewable sources, and generating our own renewable electricity.

The construction of a solar farm on University owned land at Lord’s Bridge to supply University buildings at West Cambridge will play an important part in helping the University to meet these targets. The electricity demand of the West Cambridge site will only increase with the new buildings coming on-line and the electricity generated by the solar farm will reduce the requirement for this demand to be met from the national grid supply.

Having our own renewable generation would also provide protection against future electricity cost increases and would be a tangible demonstration of our determination to meet our targets.

Over the last ten years, a number of studies, masterplans, and strategy documents have been commissioned to investigate building, and estate-wide, energy consumption to gauge where renewable and low carbon energy technologies could be utilised. In 2015, a University commissioned report by AECOM, ‘Investigation into Opportunities for Strategic Estate-wide Renewable and Low Carbon Energy at the University of Cambridge’, deemed solar farms as being the most appropriate. Solar farms provide an economy of scale advantage over building‑by‑building or site‑by‑site arrays of panels. Since this report, a significant number of solar farms have been, and are being, developed in this region, mainly as they are seen as being a ‘friendlier neighbour’ than some other large-scale renewables.

Following an assessment of the University’s rural estate, Lord’s Bridge was considered the most appropriate location for a University owned solar farm. There is potential to provide the equivalent of over 15% of the University’s 2019 electricity demand. If this project is successful, it may be feasible to develop solar farms on other University owned land.

Surveys will be completed before the planning application submission at the site, looking at existing biodiversity, soil type and visual impact, to make sure that this remains the case with this project. There is very real potential to increase the biodiversity at the site through the development of meadow, or low intensity grazing, beneath the panels to replace the current agriculture use of parts of the site.

Three different options for delivering power to the University from a solar farm at Lord’s Bridge have been considered. The first two were (i) simply exporting the power to the public grid, or (ii) ‘sleeving’ the power across the public grid from Lord’s Bridge to West Cambridge. There were two particular difficulties with these options:

1. the possibility that the University would lose ‘ownership’ of the carbon savings if third party suppliers or users were involved, and thus it would not, in accounting terms, contribute towards the University’s zero‑carbon reduction objectives;

2. the financial return would be affected by the additional costs of having to replace the UKPN substation at Lord’s Bridge to accommodate the amount of electricity exported from the solar farm;

The third option is to install our own infrastructure to carry the power from Lord’s Bridge to West Cambridge. This is the option that has been pursued for the development of the current business case.

A detailed technical and financial assessment of the feasibility of developing Lord’s Bridge for a University owned solar farm to supply West Cambridge via a private wire has been made. The results of this have been presented to the Finance Committee who have recommended that this First Stage Grace be submitted by Council in advance of the submission of a detailed planning application to the Local Planning Authority.

If the Grace is approved and planning permission subsequently granted, the opportunity to construct, and potentially operate and manage the scheme on the University’s behalf will be tendered. An earlier investigation into tendering concluded that planning permission was the greatest risk; without planning permission suppliers would be reluctant to put the effort into developing a full case – that is why we are seeking to eliminate planning risk prior to going to the market. Before entering into a contract, an analysis of the bids will be presented to the Finance Committee. This will provide further scrutiny of the business plan assumptions. If the preferred option requires bond funding, it will also need to be demonstrated that the business plan meets the eligibility criteria for utilisation of the bond.