Forrest has been appointed by United Utilities to develop the world's second largest ever floating solar power system in Greater Manchester.

The £3.5m 3MW farm will be located on the Godley reservoir and will consist of 12,000 solar panels floating on the reservoirs water.

In total, the project will encompass an area of 45,500 sq m, making it the largest floating solar array system in Europe.

Both Forrest and system supplier Floating Solar UK have been appointed to the contract.

A deadline has been set to complete the installation, test it and make it operational before Christmas 2015.


Once finished, the 12-week project is to generate 2.7GWh of renewable power per year.

Chris Stubbs, head of renewable energy at United Utilities, said: "As part of United Utilities energy strategy to generate more power we identified the Godley reservoir as a suitable site to install a floating solar array to provide the water treatment works with approximately 33 per cent of its energy requirements.

"While floating solar has been deployed elsewhere around the world, most notably in Japan, it is a new technology to the UK. Installations, such as the Godley solar scheme, will help us to keep energy costs and water customers' bills low."

Paul McCarren, energy services director at Forrest, added: "Following our strong track record in rooftop and ground mounted solar projects across commercial sectors, our work with the water utilities industry has continued to grow significantly over the past 12 months.

"Being appointed to deliver Europe's largest commercial, floating solar project is a key milestone for us."

(LM/CD)