1.7MWp ground-mounted solar farm to be built at Doncaster Sheffield Airport

A 1.7MWp solar farm is to be built at Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA), financed by the airport's investors the Peel Group.

The £2 million ground-mounted farm is set to open in 2020. The Peel Group is currently reviewing the best path to delivering the project, which it claims could supply up to 4MW of green power.

The farm will be located on the grounds of the airport, behind the existing acoustic bund and fence and will be ‘practically invisible’ to local residents.

Doncaster Council has confirmed that an Environmental Impact Assessment will not be required.

Robert Hough, chairman of Doncaster Sheffield Airport, said the farm is “vitally important” for the airport’s sustainable future, with the array set to generate 25% of the airport's energy demand.

“We are committed to our part in delivering the opportunity here around DSA which with the right support from government can start making an impact on people in the North lives now, not years away.”

Aviation minister Baroness Vere said the planned solar farm shows that airports are finding practical solutions to becoming greener.

“To bring about real change in transport, we need to do things differently,” She said, adding that the aviation industry is acting now “to safeguard our future”.

The addition of solar to the airport comes as part of its 20 year plan, which forecasts passenger numbers will double within the next five years.

DSA is not the first airport to install solar as pressure mounts on the aviation industry to decarbonise. A 110kW solar farm was installed at Dublin Airport in 2018 by Sun Stream Energy.

An earlier version of this article claimed that Grupotec Renewables had been contracted for the farm but no procurement process has yet to take place.