ScottishPower to Provide Solar Power to British Co-op's Sites

Britain’s Co-operative Group Limited, better known as Co-op, will offtake the entire output of a 9-MWp solar park in Cambridgeshire under a deal with ScottishPower Renewables, part of Spanish utility Iberdrola SA.

The 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) was announced by the consumer cooperative on Wednesday as part of its efforts to enhance the security of its energy supply and achieve net zero by 2035. The arrangement will provide it with clean electricity for its estate, including food stores, distribution centres and Funeralcare homes across the UK. The output will be enough to supply around 55 Co-op food stores and equals the annual power consumption of 2,000 homes.

The contract is tied to ScottishPower’s Coldham solar farm, which consists of over 19,000 PV panels co-located with the company’s wind farm with the same name.

This solar farm is a further step in Co-op’s approach to renewable energy procurement through a mixture of PPAs and embedded generation,” said Shirine Khoury-Haq, CEO of Co-op, which last year contracted the output of French Voltalia’s 34-MW Eastgate solar project in Northern England.