Bristol Airport’s solar array generates record amount of renewable energy

Image courtesy Bristol Airport

More than 1,425,000 Kwh of energy has been generated from the Airport’s solar arrays, already exceeding last year’s total. The arrays were installed as part of the company’s sustainability strategy to reduce carbon emissions.

All buildings at Bristol Airport use this power, so it helps to charge the electric buses that transport passengers across the site, runway lighting and even the coffee machines in restaurants. In fact 1,425,000 Kwh would be enough to boil more than 14 million kettles or one kettle a day being boiled for the next 39,000 years. 

The Airport has a 1.5-megawatt solar farm to the south of the runway and this year installed additional panels at the fire station, including the snow base for clearing snow in the winter, as well as on the roof of the new terminal’s South Gates. Solar array is also installed on the newly opened Public Transport Interchange and Cavu Lounge roof.

Hannah Pollard, Head of Sustainability, said: “We’re working towards our commitment to be net zero for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions across our operations by 2030. Our investment in solar array, as well as electrification of buses, are among the initiatives we’ve been rolling out to meet the target.

“Due to the incredible summer we’ve had this year, significantly more renewable energy has been generated on site compared to 2024, which means less needs to be taken from the national grid.

“We have further investment planned that will help to decarbonise our operations further over the coming years.” 

Bristol Airport set an interim target to cut carbon emissions across its operations by 73% by 2027 as part of its Sustainability strategy so progress could be monitored. As well as reducing its own emissions, the Airport is working in unique partnerships with the aerospace sector to develop zero emissions flight."