London Luton Airport (LLA) wants to reduce its carbon emissions and its reliance on the grid by building a solar farm within the airport boundary. It wants to generate at least 10GWh of electricity per year to cover a quarter of its demand, using area south of the runway, but is also considering options that would make full use of space available to reach maximum GWh per annum.
The company’s aim is to produce renewable energy on-site in line with its internal target of at least 25% of electricity consumption coming from on-site or ‘behind the meter’ generation.
The LLA said it was still considering the most economically viable solution to meet its target. It plans to award a single contract to design, install, commission and maintain the solar farm by Q4 2025. This could be in the form of an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) approach or via a power purchase agreement (PPA).
The £27 million contract includes 1-2 years for works then a full operations and maintenance (O&M) service agreement for at least two years from project completion, with an option to extend the contract for another three years.