Transport for London (TfL) has opened a bidding round for developers wishing to create purpose-built solar farms to power the London Underground network.
As part of TfL’s ambitious plan to use 100% renewable energy across its entire network by 2030, TfL is seeking a delivery partner who will design and deliver proposals for solar developments of up to 64MW, roughly 5% of the electricity needed to run the London Underground network across the capital. The project will explore positioning solar infrastructure in and near the city. It will use a private wire arrangement to entirely bypass local grid infrastructure in order to reduce pressure on National Grid and local Distribution Network Operators (DNOs).
The competitive tender for the project is now open, with developers invited to submit bids until 20 December. While the brief is to develop a bespoke solar power plant for the London Underground network specifically, TfL’s announcement of the bidding round notes that there are “opportunities for a broader connection to TfL’s estate”. TfL is the largest single electricity user in London, with an annual energy demand of around 1.6TWh each year.
Lilli Matson, TfL’s chief safety health environment officer, said: “By opening up new opportunities in the energy market and creating green jobs along the way, this is a start of a long-term journey to decarbonise London’s iconic transport system. We want to stay ahead of the curve and make a significant contribution to the acceleration of Great Britain’s grid transition towards net zero.”
Mete Coban, deputy mayor for environment and energy, called the plan to power the Tube with solar “a win-win”, adding that “not only will the solar panels help TfL to cut running costs and save passengers money, they will also create green jobs while helping TfL to reduce its carbon emissions”.
Decarbonising transport in the capital
Efforts to decarbonise TfL’s network have been gathering pace in recent years and months.
As reported by our sister site Current±, London’s bus network has been a significant focus of TfL’s decarbonisation efforts, with DNO UK Power Networks (UKPN) recently investing £4 million into London’s electricity grid to facilitate the rollout of more electric buses across London. Thanks to UKPN’s Green Recovery Fund, a new 4.5MW power connection has now enabled bus operator Arriva to operate 109 new electric buses from the Whitehall Road depot.
In 2022, TfL launched a tender for power purchase agreements (PPAs) for the Tube network, seeking to offtake enough power to cover around 10% of the network’s usage with renewable energy sources. According to the announcement of the recently opened solar power bidding round, efforts to source these PPAs are “well underway”.
