South Cambridgeshire District Council - Development and Delivery of Waterbeach Renewable Energy Network (WREN)

Development and Delivery of Waterbeach Renewable Energy Network (WREN)

The Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service (GCSWS) for Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council has made a commitment to decarbonise its fleet of refuse vehicles by 2030, which currently accounts for around 1,800 tonnes of CO2 per year.

To support fleet decarbonisation and meet the Councils’ 2028 and 2030 net zero targets, there is an urgent need for an on-site renewable energy solution to enable charging of electric vehicles at its depot in Waterbeach, where the local electricity network has insufficient capacity to meet the charging requirements of the Councils’ fleet.

The depot is located at Dickerson Industrial Estate, Cambridge CB5 0PG, off the A10, in between the Cambridge Research Park and Waterbeach Waste Management Park.

South Cambridgeshire District Council, on behalf of the GCSWS, will soon be procuring for the development and delivery of an integrated renewable energy and storage solution, to be operational by from June 2025, which will include:

• Ground mounted Solar Photovoltaic Array
• Local grid infrastructure including Local grid energy Centre
• Electric Refuse Vehicle Chargers
• Energy/Power Management system
• Energy Storage System
• Mains Point of Connection to the UKPN electricity distribution network

Innovative proposals to derive further environmental and community benefits from the project are also encouraged through the procurement e.g. potential re-use of EV batteries for energy storage.