VINCI Airports will launch a 14-hectare solar power plant at Lyon-Saint Exupéry airport, capable of producing 24GWh of green electricity annually, equivalent to the consumption of 9,000 inhabitants. Construction of the new solar power plant is set to begin in Autumn 2023, for a commissioning in Summer 2024.
Power produced by the plant will be injected into the grid, supplying neighbouring communities and avoiding nearly 1,600 tons of CO2 emissions per year when compared to the average electricity supplied to the French grid.
“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,” said Nicolas Notebaert, CEO, VINCI Concessions and President, VINCI Airports. “This allows us to decarbonise our own consumption, but also to contribute to the energy transition of the territories, by injecting the electricity we produce into the network, as we will soon do in Lyon.”
The project has been validated by the French Energy Regulation Commission and has additionally been awarded to a consortium comprising Neoen and SunMind, which will design, finance, build and operate the plant until 2047.
Production of the new solar power plant is part of VINCI Airports’ ambition to produce renewable energy from its airports, having already achieved a capacity of more than 40 MWp with its solar plants across the UK, Portugal, Brazil and the Dominican Republic. Its ambition also includes VINCI Airports’ aim to exploit a potential exceeding 1 GWp.
