Solar on council land, without spending council capital.
Most councils own more ground than they think of as an asset. A closed tip, a depot yard, a park and ride, a leisure centre roof. The council keeps the freehold, grants a lease, and takes ground rent or fixed price power. The capital risk sits with the developer.
Two minutes, three questions. No sales calls unless you ask for one.
Three ways it is usually structured
The council grants a 20 to 40 year lease. A developer funds, builds and operates. The council receives rent on land that was producing nothing, and gets the site back at the end.
The array sits on the council's own roof or yard and the council buys the output at a fixed price, usually below the grid rate, with no capital outlay and no maintenance obligation.
The council funds it directly, through PWLB or reserves, and keeps all the benefit. Slower to approve, better return, and only sensible once the grid and ground questions are settled.
Answer the grid question first
Capacity at the boundary decides the size of the project, and the size decides whether the rent is worth the paperwork. It is a cheap question to ask and an expensive one to skip. Our grid capacity check covers it before anyone drafts a heads of terms.
For closed landfill in particular, the engineering is settled: ballasted supports sit on the cap rather than through it. We wrote up how New Haven did it in the hill made of rubbish that pays rent, along with what stops the same thing happening here.
If the project is about buildings the council runs rather than land it lets, the community buildings route is the better fit, and there is a summary of the funding and advice landscape in local net zero support.
Common questions
Can a council put solar on land it owns?
Yes. The usual route is a lease: the council keeps the freehold and grants a developer a 20 to 40 year lease to fund, build and operate the array. The council takes ground rent, or buys the power at a fixed price, or both. No capital leaves the general fund.
What council land is usually worth looking at?
Closed landfill and capped tips, depot yards, park and ride and leisure centre car parks, sewage and water treatment land, allotment margins, verges beside a substation, and the roofs of depots, schools and leisure centres. Grid capacity at the boundary matters more than acreage.
Does solar on a closed tip break the cap?
Not when it is ballasted. The array sits on weighted supports laid on the surface rather than piles driven through the membrane, so the seal, the gas collection and the leachate system are left intact. That is how New Haven did it in Connecticut.
What can a council earn from it?
Ground rent on a leased site, or avoided electricity cost if the council takes the power. New Haven expects roughly $1.5m in ground rent across a twenty year lease on a single closed landfill. The number here depends on the connection more than the land.
Do we need to procure it before we know if it works?
No. Start with a capacity and constraint check at the boundary and a look at the site history. Both take weeks and cost nothing to ask about. Procurement only makes sense once you know what the ground and the grid will carry.
Two minutes, three questions. No sales calls unless you ask for one.