14-hectare solar power plant at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport (LYS)

by | Apr 25, 2023 | Airports, News

14-hectare solar power plant at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport (LYS)

 

The French Ministry of Ecological Transition has validated plans for construction of a 14-hectare solar power plant at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport (LYS). The facility will cover 5,800 parking spaces at the airport making it one of the largest shaded power plants in the country.

VINCI Airports President Nicolas Notebaert said:

“Airports are places of opportunity for photovoltaic production, which is why Vinci Airports has been committed to developing solar power plants for several years now. This allows us to decarbonize our own consumption, but also to contribute to the energy transition of [local communities] by injecting the electricity we produce into the [local] network.”

Once completed, the power plant is anticipated to produce 24 gigawatt hours (GWh) of green electricity annually which will be “injected into the grid to supply the neighbouring communities.” This is equivalent to the consumption of 9,000 people and is estimated to avoid the emission of nearly 1,600 tons of CO2 each year.

According to the press release, this project is part of VINCI Airports’ wider ambition to produce renewable energy at its airports. VINCI Airports has a capacity of more than 40 MWp with solar plants in operation at its airports in the UK, Portugal, Brazil or the Dominican Republic and aims to exploit a potential exceeding 1 GWp.