The UK's 'national clean energy champion', SSE has announced the purchase of the project development rights for a 30MW solar farm from Stark Energy, as part of its ambitious £12.5bn investment programme to power change towards net zero.

The 30MW solar farm at Littleton Pastures is located near Evesham in Worcestershire. Once complete in late 2023, the 77-acre site will be capable of powering some 9,400 homes.

SSE Group is investing around £7m a day on critical low-carbon infrastructure to facilitate the transition to net zero. Solar energy is regarded as a complementary technology to other sources of renewable technology such as wind power.

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SSE's distributed energy team is developing opportunities of over 1GW in solar and battery storage technology and recently announced its first 50MW battery storage project in Wiltshire.

Richard Cave-Bigley, SSE Sector Director For Distributed Generation And Storage, said: "Today is a significant milestone for SSE with the acquisition of our first solar project and shows our serious ambitions in this market. We see solar as a key complementary technology to SSE's existing portfolio of low carbon infrastructure such as wind and hydro and one that can power us towards net zero. Last year we announced our first battery storage project, and we are fully focused on developing over 1GW of solar and battery technology. We look forward to being able to announce further solar and battery projects during 2022."

Anthony Brindle, Managing Director of Stark Energy, said: "SSE has a strong track record of constructing and operating renewable energy projects in the United Kingdom and we are delighted to be working with them on our Littleton project. We look forward to supporting SSE through the construction process and seeing the project through to its connection."