Agenda item

Andy Croy asked the Executive Members for Resident Services, Communications and Emissions the following question:

Minutes:

 

My question is about the changes in numbers relating to the Barkham and other solar farms.

 

The Climate Emergency Action Plan of July 2020 included four proposed solar farms, at an estimated combined cost of £18 million.  It showed estimated carbon savings by the four farms as 5,112t of carbon each but with a total of 25,560t carbon saved.

 

The Climate Emergency Action Plan of July 2021 still included four solar farms but the Barkham Farm by itself was now shown as costing £21 million.  The cost of the remaining three farms was shown as to be confirmed. The Plan showed 7,970k carbon saved by Barkham and in addition showed the 3 un-costed farms still saving 5,112t carbon each.  In effect, the Plan showed over 15,000t carbon saved but for no cost.

 

To summarise, the cost of the Barkham solar farm is more than four times the original estimate while the current Climate Emergency Action Plan includes carbon savings estimates for 3 farms for which there are no costs attached.

 

The Climate Emergency Action Plan is a living document. Given the extraordinarily inaccurate estimates as to costs of solar farms and totally misleading accounting for carbon savings, how can residents trust the plan?

 

Answer

The Council’s declaration of a climate emergency and the associated Action Plan established a series of commitments to play as full a role as possible in achieving a carbon-neutral Wokingham Borough by 2030.

 

As it is clearly stated in the 2020 report “The action plan is a predictive tool that allows us to understand generally, where we are heading and to implement new actions accordingly.  Without this tool, we would not have a clear path on what the scale of the approach should be”.  The broad targets set within the Climate Emergency Action Plan allow us to understand the level of commitment that is required. However, as was made clear in the plan, these targets and financial implications are best estimates based on the information we had at the time.

 

The £18m recorded in the report published in July 2020 is the committed funding to initiate these projects, which as we already mentioned, will be informed as we progress with the delivery of each project.  Solar farms, as any other infrastructure project, are subject to location, site specific and capacity requirements.  All these factors will affect the cost of the project and are only known until proper feasibility assessments are completed.  Therefore, the real cost and carbon savings for each solar farm can only be confirmed once the necessary studies are finished.

 

The solar farm at Barkham will be funded through prudential borrowing.  As the detail of the Barkham project has evolved, the financial appraisal has been developed using expert advice on costs and performance.  Importantly, after taking into account the delivery, running and capital financing costs of the project, the appraisal is still forecasting a healthy return to the Council over the lifetime of the installation.

 

It is envisaged that the other solar farms will be delivered on a similar basis and there is no evidence at this time to suggest that they will not demonstrate a similar return on investment to the Council when they are brought forward.  The access to funding for these other solar farms therefore is not considered to be a barrier to delivery and residents may therefore be assured that the delivery of the solar farms remains a significant commitment by the Council as part of the Climate Emergency Action Plan.

 

Supplementary Question

I appreciate that there is a lot of detail in the plan to keep track of and it is difficult to keep your eye on all the parts. But this is at least an £8m gap which, to my knowledge, has not been publicly discussed to date.

 

I am sure that you and every Councillor will be dismayed at the magnitude of this problem. I do not know if this is a transparency issue, a lack of attention to details or what it is. In the light of this issue, do you think that you have the commitment to transparency, attention to detail or the competence to properly discharge the delegated authority requested for you in relation to the Barkham Farm project?

 

Supplementary Answer

I think that the solar farm in Barkham stands up as an economic investment. With the fuel prices as they are at the moment, we have put in conservative estimates which show that, even after paying down the loan and the interest on the loan, building the solar farm will generate approximately £400k per annum of profit for the Council that we can invest in other Climate Emergency initiatives and other initiatives that our residents want.

 

With the energy prices the way they are at the moment, the conservative estimate is only going upwards. So, we will be making an even greater return on that investment. I was told yesterday that the equipment cost factored into the budget for this project still holds true. So we will be providing it at the same cost and making more back as a result. I think that it is a great investment and, if it was my money, I would still do it.