Update on Wrigley Head Solar Farm

Plans to build a huge new solar energy farm next to Rochdale Canal could be ‘completed by autumn’ after years of delay.

Around 2,700 solar panels are due to be installed on land at Wrigley Head in Failsworth. 

The ‘derelict’ 3.5 acre plot, bound by the Metrolink and Rochdale Canal, will become home to a council-owned solar farm in an effort to make the borough ‘more green’ and bring down energy costs. 

The solar panels will be plugged into the national grid and could help power the Spindles shopping centre, according to a new report. 

But the plans are currently facing a ‘number of challenges’ which are causing delays to the start of construction. These include late changes to the plans, such as the route of underground cabling and location of a substation, which will now be erected closer to the Metrolink. 

Andrew Hunt, sustainability manager at Oldham Council, wrote in a report updating on the progress of the scheme: “A number of issues remain to be resolved before the solar farm can progress to construction phase. It is hoped that the solar farm will be complete by autumn 2025.”

Some on-site works have started and a number of planning conditions have been discharged.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands a new feasibility study is currently being conducted, with the final costs of the plan yet to be determined.

A study in 2023 estimated the construction costs to be around £1.35m, which would be funded from the council’s capital spending pot. 

A spokesperson for the council indicated there was currently ‘no doubt’ the project will go ahead and that work is ‘progressing’. The council has promised to issue an update in the coming weeks. 

The plans have already faced several years of delay. First conceived of in 2018, the plans had to be shelved entirely during the pandemic.

The scheme was later resurrected and approved in 2021 in the hopes it would reduce CO2 emissions by 50 tonnes a year and help save on council energy bills.