Greater Manchester is taking huge steps towards having the first carbon neutral public transport system in the UK by outlining plans to invest significantly in homegrown clean energy to power the Bee Network.
A week on from the Government approving an investment-led plan for cleaning up the region’s air, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is seeking to boost its green credentials by striking a long-term deal which will see trams powered by 100% renewable energy sourced from a newly-constructed solar or wind farm.
The proposed power purchase agreement (PPA) is a long-term contract between an energy generator and a buyer to buy energy at an agreed price, reducing running costs and protecting against spikes in energy prices.
With an estimated value of around £57m over 15 years, the upcoming tender would provide the equivalent power to cover Metrolink’s current annual demand and could be replicated in the future to cover the consumption of an increasingly electrified bus network, which is expected to almost quadruple annual energy use.
Hundreds of new, greener and more accessible vehicles are already on Greater Manchester’s roads through bus franchising, which completed earlier this month. The fleet will be bolstered further by the Clean Air Plan which will see £51.1m spent on 40 more zero emission buses, 77 Euro VI standard buses and charging infrastructure.
By the end of March 2025, more than half (52%) of Bee Network buses will be new and 75% of the fleet will be less than four years old (compared to an average fleet age of 9.5 years in 2019). The number of electric buses in the fleet also continues to grow rapidly, from fewer than 1% before franchising to 25% by the summer
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said: “The Bee Network is the key to unlocking a new green revolution across Greater Manchester. With cleaner, more reliable public transport we can cut carbon emissions, improve services for passengers and clear up the air throughout our city-region.
“We’re making rapid progress to electrify our bus fleet and our depots, and are on track to have a full electric network by 2030. Locking in a long-term, stable supply of renewable energy will help us meet that goal, delivering new net-zero infrastructure and driving down emissions across the network.”
The PPA will:
- Provide price certainty to minimise energy disruption caused by market volatility seen in recent years due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and wider potential geopolitical impacts.
- Create additional renewable capacity to bring in additional and incremental sustainable energy production to the UK national grid.
- Support GM’s Net Zero ambitions as the region looks to establish a fully decarbonized transport network by 2030.
- Accommodate expansion to the Bee Network and future plans to expand Metrolink
This first PPA would be for an initial 45,000 megawatt hours of energy, equivalent to Metrolink’s annual electricity consumption. As more electric buses are brought into service, the amount of energy used by TfGM is expected to grow from 58,000MWh in 2024 to around 214,000MWh by 2036 which provides the opportunity for further PPAs in the future.
The PPA is expected to go live by 31st December 2027*. The formal tender was released to interested parties on Monday 3rd February and can be accessed here.
