London Stansted opens on-site solar farm

London Stansted Airport has switched on a new solar farm built on land it already owned just east of the site. It is the first installation of its kind at a London airport. More than 24,000 panels were used. Onsite Power, the commercial and industrial solar division of EDF power solutions, built the farm and will run it.

The panels generate up to 17.2MW of direct current. Once converted, the farm can feed up to 12.8MW of usable alternating current straight into the airport's network. According to the airport, output on the sunniest day matches its peak demand. Across a year, the electricity would cover the annual demand of 7,000 homes, roughly the same as the town of Saffron Walden.

The farm is part of London Stansted's £1.1 billion transformation programme. It is meant to help meet the airport's current and rising electricity needs, including demand from greater use of electric vehicles, and to support its target of net zero carbon emissions from direct operations by no later than 2038.

Gareth Powell, managing director of London Stansted, called the project a significant milestone. He pointed to the airport's Level 3+ carbon neutral status, awarded in 2018, and its practice of sourcing all electricity from renewable sources.