This week, construction began on Ostend-Bruges Airport’s solar park. Energy company EnergyVision is installing over 60,000 panels to create the largest solar park in West Flanders and the second-largest in the entirety of Belgium.

The panels are expected to be up and running by spring 2026, when 303,864m2 will produce over 37,000 MWh of electricity annually. While much of the area surrounding runways is unusable, turning this dead space into a solar park will result in energy savings of 9,600 tons of CO2 every year. In a step forwards on the airport’s decarbonisation journey, this green power will power all the airport’s electricity needs and the excess will be diverted to Antwerp Airport and made available to local residents.

Eric Dumas, CEO of Ostend-Bruges Airport, commented,

“The energy generated will initially be used to supply electricity to the entire airport site. This project will allow the airport to operate on 100 per cent green electricity. This is an important step in our goal of emitting 30 per cent less CO2 by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. The remaining electricity goes to as many as 10,000 families in our immediate area. For us, it is absolutely important to also let our neighbours benefit from power from our own region. If all goes well, the first families will be able to enjoy green electricity as early as of September. In autumn, enough solar panels will therefore be operational at the airport to generate 10 MWp of power already..”

With the project anticipated to complete in 2026, the airport is already looking at a possible next phase where kinetic tiles could generate energy from it travellers.

 

For more like this see: