Leighton Grange Solar Farm

Leighton Grange Solar Farm is Cheshire East Council’s first ground-mounted solar facility.

Completed in 2024, the 4.1MW solar farm is providing power to the council’s composting facility, with any power not required by the facility sent back to the grid to power local homes and businesses.

The addition of low carbon and renewable electricity generation assets to the borough represents a key pillar of the council’s ambition to be carbon neutral as an authority by 2027. As the council is unable to reduce its carbon emissions to zero in that time, the council is offsetting the residual carbon through green energy generation and natural offset, often large tree planting schemes.

Projects such as Leighton Grange retain the value of Cheshire East Council assets within the borough and add additional green electricity to the available mix within the grid.

The site at Leighton where the solar farm is based demonstrates the breadth of carbon reduction activity the council has undertaken, which includes the composting plant giving the borough’s food and garden waste a second life, and the Mersey Forest has planted seven hectares of trees.